Menacing, Resilient, Learning - The Secrets Behind Mitchell Starc Elite?

England's struggle against bowlers named Mitchell spans a long time.

It started with Mitchell Johnson's ferocity in 2013, and has persisted through the magical left-arm pace of Starc.

In the seventh Ashes series of his career, Starc has taken 26 wickets - stepping up in the unavailability of pace colleagues sometimes more highly rated.

Just four more dismissals in the fifth Test in Sydney and his total will be the highest by anyone in an Ashes series since Johnson 12 years ago.

How 'Toughening Up' Paved the Way for A Prolific Career of Starc

The Summer of Starc - the veteran paceman has also outscored three of England's top order with the bat - is the zenith of a Test career built on durability, bowling prowess and a desire to adapt.

Over the past recent period he has overtaken Curtly Ambrose, Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock and, most significantly, Wasim Akram on the list of cricket's greatest bowlers.

By surpassing Wasim, Starc became the highest wicket-taking left-arm seamer in Test history.

And when he lines up at his home venue for the Sydney Test this week, it will be the 27th straight Australia Test in a row in which he has been selected - a wider run of only four missed Tests from the past fifty-six.

The days of a 20-year-old Starc being told to "harden up" by then Australia coach Tim Nielsen are a distant memory.

"Back then it might have stung him a little bit and that is probably the role to test competitors and to try and get them to be stronger than they have been in the past," Nielsen said.

"It was probably one of the discussions you have with a lot of rookie quicks, especially when they start to come into international cricket.

"There were a couple of times where he said he was a bit sore and might need a break.

"It wasn't anything more than 'I reckon it's time we have got to test how much your body can take before it breaks rather than stopping in case it breaks.'"

What Makes Starc So Difficult to Face?

So great the transformation, the national team's coach Andrew McDonald has talked up the idea of Starc, the oldest of the world-class pace trio, touring England for the next Ashes series in England, by which time he will be 37.

Ray Lindwall, who played his final Test in 1960, was the last Australian quick to wear a baggy green beyond his 37th year.

Achieving this would give Starc the chance to join cricket's 500-wicket club and become only the fifth seamer to take 500 Test wickets.

Longevity can get you so far. To reach that milestone, you must be a constant danger too.

"The strange thing, even though he is so brilliant, is that at the start of his run-up you can discern what he is planning to bowl," says former England batter Dawid Malan.

"It remains necessary to be able to play it but you can see when he is preparing a seam delivery, see when he is trying to swing it."

On occasion in Starc's career when he has been faulted for leaking runs, something with which he has said he has come to terms.

That negative is heavily counterbalanced by his remarkable skill to take wickets.

Of the elite bowlers to have taken more than 350 in Tests, only two modern greats have done so with a better strike rate than Starc's.

He may go for runs, but the mean number of balls he needs to take a wicket is remarkably low.

"What I found tricky is I always felt like I was comfortable facing him," Malan explained.

"It seemed I was seeing the ball well because he has such a smooth run-up, you can see the ball and there are excellent batting surfaces in Australia but one in every 10 balls he'd bowl an perfect ball and you would just be heading to the pavilion.

"At other times, I wouldn't say you ease up but you think 'I'm in control.'

"He will bowl a poor ball because he has experimented, bowl a cut ball and then abruptly bowls a ball that starts on middle and hits the off stump.

"He has just always got that wicket-taking ball. If you don't treat every ball seriously every single ball he just finds a way of getting you out."

A Revival Powered By Innovation

While he may not reach the extreme speeds of his early career these days, Starc's typical speed has remained solidly above 87 miles per hour throughout the latter part of his career.

An skill he held from the beginning shows no indication of declining.

"He was tall, very tall, and had exceptional pace through the air which was remarkable," Nielsen says.

"Additionally, he could move the ball back into the right-hander."

Moving the ball in the air and targeting the toes, pads or grille was, like other great left-armers before him, Starc's key strategy during the early years of his career.

But, after being omitted during the 2019 Ashes tour, Starc added the wobble seam ball to his skill set by the time he returned to England in 2023.

No-one in the world has taken as many as Starc's 118 wickets since the start of that 2023 series. Even Indian pace ace Jasprit Bumrah trails by twelve wickets.

The wobble seam has been a primary cause.

"Mitchell Starc just shows you can teach an old job new tricks," stated former Australia pace bowler Jason Gillespie.

"He studied a lot of England's veteran seamers and spoke to them about it.

"For a player aged his mid-thirties to continue improving is exceptional."

The wobbler has added greater uncertainty to Starc's game.

When hurling down the ball with a wobbling seam rather than looking to hoop it, some deliveries jag unpredictably off the surface after pitching. Others will push on straight and bring in the edge of the bat.

Two of England's top batsmen both fell to Starc wobble balls in the first session of the current Ashes.

Starc's number of catches to the slip cordon has increased by almost 10% in the past three years.

"The crucial element to the wobble seam ball is to have your wrist position right behind the ball and release the ball off your fingertips," Gillespie explains.

"With the wobble seam Mitchell Starc will grip the ball with the seam angled towards gully.

"If you release it at the correct moment it will wobble down the pitch and that generates uncertainty for the batsman.

"He has been working hard at developing that because he feels that the wobble ball going away involves the keeper and slips into play and makes his in-swinging delivery to the right-handed batsman more of a surprise."

England's torment by bowlers named Mitchell may continue for some time yet.