Mitchell Starc

Lightning fast bowler and World Cup winner Mitchell Starc is an Australian cricketer who has represented his country, as well as the state of New South Wales in domestic cricket. Starc, a left-arm fast bowler and lower-order left-handed batsman, was a key member of Australia’s 2015 Cricket World Cup-winning squad and was named Player of the Tournament. He is the joint fifth highest wicket taker in World Cup history with 49 wickets. Starc’s 160.4 km/h delivery against Ross Taylor of New Zealand in November 2015 was one of the quickest ever in a Test match. He is recognized as one of modern cricket’s top fast bowlers.

In August 2016, against Sri Lanka, Starc became the fastest bowler to take over 100 ODI wickets, doing so in 52 innings and breaking Saqlain Mushtaq’s 19-year-old record of taking 100 wickets in 53 innings. Starc’s record was eclipsed 19 months later, in March 2018, by Afghan leg spinner Rashid Khan, who claimed 100 wickets in only 44 innings.

With the bat, Starc beat Andrew Symonds’ record of most sixes in a single innings at the MCG in December 2016, when he smashed seven sixes against Pakistan in the Boxing Day Test. In November 2017, when playing for New South Wales against Western Australia in the 2017–18 Sheffield Shield season, he became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in each innings of a Sheffield Shield match. Starc was picked to the Ashes test team for the 2021-22 season. He was impressive with both ball and bat during the series, collecting runs as a solid lower-order batsman and picking up 19 wickets in five matches with a bowling average of 25.37. Starc’s 155 runs and batting average of 38.75 helped Australia retain the Ashes and win the series 4-0.