{"id":303828,"date":"2025-11-23T16:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T16:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/303828\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T16:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T16:43:13","slug":"australia-star-on-cusp-of-left-arm-immortality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/303828\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia star on cusp of left-arm immortality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s lethal weapon Mitchell Starc is on the verge of passing Wasim Akram as the most prolific left-arm bowler in Test history.<\/p>\n

Coming off a 10-wicket, player of the match performance in Australia’s stunning win over England in Perth, Starc is set to stamp himself as a true icon of cricket in the second Test in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

He is just two wickets away from equalling Pakistan legend Akram on 414 Test scalps.<\/p>\n

Akram has long been recognised as the greatest left-arm bowler in cricket history.<\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/p>\n

Starc carried the attack in Perth with 10 wickets, including this magnificent caught-and-bowled. (Dave Hunt\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Almost 14 years to the day since his Test debut, Starc is genuinely bowling better than ever.<\/p>\n

Without captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, the 35-year-old had to carry Australia’s pace attack in the Ashes opener.<\/p>\n

He performed above even the highest expectations, snaring a career-best 7-58 on debut to skittle England for 172.<\/p>\n

Starc took key wickets in the second innings, helping trigger a frantic Bazball collapse that allowed Australia to chase just 205.<\/p>\n

Having taken 39 wickets at 15.71 this year, Starc is just 11 scalps away from equalling his most in a 12-month period, set back in 2016.<\/p>\n

The 101-Test warrior still has three matches to come this year to achieve that, including a pink-ball Test at the Gabba where he has historically fired.<\/p>\n

\"Starc<\/p>\n

Starc was the chief destroyer as Ben Stokes’s England were humiliated in Perth. (Dave Hunt\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Former Australia spinner Kerry O’Keeffe described Starc as a “warrior”.<\/p>\n

“This guy is a bowler of the ages and we’ve taken him for granted for so long,” O’Keeffe said in commentary on Kayo Sports during the first Test.<\/p>\n

“And it’s a fast bowler’s twilight period at 35, yet his pace has not diminished, his strike rate is as good as ever.”<\/p>\n

Cummins is pushing to return to play in Brisbane, ramping up his bowling in the nets as he comes back from a back stress injury.<\/p>\n

But Hazlewood will almost certainly be ruled out of the second Test due to a hamstring injury and could miss most of the summer for the second year in row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s lethal weapon Mitchell Starc is on the verge of passing Wasim Akram as the most prolific left-arm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44227,31024,44,1948,46151],"class_list":["post-303828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-josh-hazlewood","tag-mitchell-starc","tag-news","tag-pat-cummins","tag-wasim-akram"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}