KL Rahul has faced the hat-trick ball twice in two innings Mitchell Starc, On both occasions he was dismissed after almost perfect deliveries from Starc to Suryakumar Yadav. In first matchStark bowled a hat-trick delivery too full. in a momentHe almost repeated the ball that dismissed Suryakumar.
Rahul puts it out. On the surface it seemed that a more adept batsman handling the same ball better in the longer format based on his success in T20s, not in List A or first-class cricket. On closer inspection, however, Suryakumar was done by a ball which accelerated to go with the beautiful swing that Starc was getting. The hat-trick ball swings in the air, but does not change direction when pitched.
Not to worry, Rahul soon got his own version of Suryakumar’s ball. The shortest length with which you can hit the stumps, swinging in the air, then pitching and seaming to beat the bat, expected to cover the line of swing. at stark speed. If you are teaching a class the meaning of unplayable, you can use that as an example.
As Starc himself said, he didn’t do much in these two ODIs. He tried to swing it, he bowled fast and he attacked the stumps. This straightforward approach – fast pace, hitting the stumps – gives him comfort best strike rate Among bowlers to have taken 100 or more wickets in the history of ODI cricket.
When it is swinging and seaming – as it has been this series – Starc is a proper nightmare as he can swing it in such a way that it still strikes the stumps. He is one of only four fast bowlers to have taken 100 or more wickets, with more than half of his wickets being bowled or lbw. The other three – Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Mohammed Sami – benefited greatly from short Asian pitches and reverse swing, which was practically taken out of the game during Starc’s time.
With the numbers Starc has – a strike rate of 25.6, an average of 21.78, nine five-fors – it’s definitely time to see where he sits among the greatest fast bowlers in ODIs. He has all the qualities: pace, bounce, swing, left arm advantage, yorkers, death bowling, middle overs wickets, angle around the wicket, ability to run through the line-up as he has seen 16 times . On hat-tricks, more than anyone since his debut.
However, ODIs are the most difficult to compare players across all eras because of how much the playing conditions and tempo of the game vary. Starc has played most of his ODI cricket with reverse-swing practically non-existent, on high-scoring pitches with good bounce, but he has bowled to more trigger-happy batsmen who need to score quickly and this types take more risks. That he has only taken 219 wickets may be an argument against him, but if he plays so little ODI cricket, he only plays “important” tournaments and series, reducing matches against unmatchable opponents.
One way to contextualize Starc among the greats of the format is to see how much better he is than the average bowler of his era. Siva Jayaraman from the stats team at ESPNcricinfo worked out these numbers for me. Starc’s average of 9.59 is lower than the average of fast bowlers in the matches he has played. Among those who have taken 100 or more wickets in ODIs, nine fast bowlers have done better on this metric. Two of these are not full-time bowlers, which may suggest that they are only being used in seam-friendly conditions, thus reducing the number.
Leaves us with seven: Jasprit Bumrah, Shaun Pollock, Glenn McGrath, Josh Hazlewood, Joel Garner, Nathan Bracken and Curtly Ambrose. Bumrah’s numbers are phenomenal: an average of 16.56 and an economy rate of 1.17 below the average of fast bowlers in the matches he has played.
Starc does not do much better than others on the economy rate front as he bowls extremely aggressive lengths to get bowled and lbw. The other side is the exceptional strike rate. Those traditional stats – average, strike rate – and that he is so much better than others of his era should be enough to place him among the greatest fast bowlers of ODI cricket. Once he is back from injury and gets into his body-work, Bumrah could fit in with Starc.
The only argument against Stark may be volume. However, he has topped the wicket charts in both the World Cups he has played. He won one, and finished a semi-finalist in the other. How much Starc wants to add to his tally of wickets will probably be decided after the World Cup later this year, but if he has a World Cup similar to the last two, he will be far from being recognized as the greatest of all time. There will be less left. all time.