Starc on the verge of a milestone against Bangladesh

Mitchell Starc is on the verge of a new milestone. He could achieve it in the Darwin Test against Bangladesh. Starc currently has 433 Test wickets. With seven more wickets, he will become the fifth highest wicket taker among fast bowlers in Test history. Kapil Dev is sixth with 434 wickets, while Dale Steyn is seventh with 439 wickets. England’s James Anderson has the most wickets among fast bowlers, with 704. Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan holds the record for the most Test wickets overall, with 800. If Starc takes seven wickets in the series against Bangladesh, he will enter the top 10 with 440 wickets.

Although the achievement would be an honor, Starc is not particularly excited about it. Speaking to AAP in an interview, he jokingly said, “It means I have been playing cricket for quite a while! To have my name mentioned alongside these legends is really great. It also keeps you humble. But as long as I am playing, these recognitions are not particularly important to me. I do not think about these things in advance.”

Starc has been playing for Australia since 2011. He said his ability not to dwell too much on failures and negative things has been the secret to his success, saying, “I apologize for using the word, but the main thing is to shake off the bad memories. You are never as good or as bad as you think you are or as other people think you are. If something does not go the way I want, I still complain and show frustration. Even until the day before the Ashes began, I did not feel that everything had fallen into place.”

Starc praised coach Andrew McDonald and Pat Cummins for giving him confidence in such situations, saying, “A big characteristic of our team under the leadership of McDonald and Cummins is that whether the day is good or bad, whether an over or spell is good or poor, it ends there. Move forward.”

Starc has taken the second most wickets among Australian fast bowlers after Glenn McGrath since turning 35. He was also the hero of Australia’s 4 to 1 Ashes victory last summer. Speaking about playing in his best rhythm at this age, Starc said, “When you are 36 years old and have been playing for 16 years, you want to improve in one way or another. The reason you last for a long time is that you have the ability to learn something new, develop and improve. Along with that, the use of the wobble seam, consistency and a few other things have also been added.”