“Batting may be cricket’s heartbeat, but fast bowling is its pulse”. Cricket, since the inception of it’s shortest format, has always been labelled as a batsman’s game. Batsmen these days have improvised a lot in bringing new shots to their arsenal. They like it coming onto the bat and would prefer playing a pacer than a spinner.
Gone are the days where fast bowlers used to dominate the circuit. You don’t find the likes of Walsh, Akram, McGrath, etc these days dominating in tandem. Still, we have a few brilliant bowlers standing tall these days. One among them is Mitchell Starc from Australia. In this article, we will be analyzing Starc’s bowling tactics using statistics and data. Let’s get into the analysis.
Run-up and delivery stride
Like other fast bowlers, Starc takes a long and steady run-up with the pace increasing as he approaches the crease. Due to his tall frame, he need not have to have a big jump like some shorter bowlers to generate pace. But there is something unique concerning his delivery stride. Most of the bowlers, who hit 140 kph regularly these days, tend to have a side-on action. When they land over their back-foot, it stays parallel to the crease. One such example is the delivery stride of Starc’s compatriot Pat Cummins. In the image below we can see Cummin’s back foot parallel to the crease line.
This is somewhat similar to Shaun Tait, Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson and Lasith Malinga’s delivery stride. Most of the bowlers these days prefer this alignment of their back foot. Starc, unlike them, has the old school delivery stride. His back foot lands facing the batsman making an angle 90 degrees with the crease. We can see his back foot in the following image.
But yet he manages to consistently deliver 140+ deliveries. This is not only down to his upper body or shoulder strength, but also his delivery stride. Let’s take a deep look into that. During his delivery, he tends to rest his body weight over his hips. We can see his front leg bending to ease the pressure from it and his hip rotating clockwise to supply strength. Eventually, after delivering the ball, his eventual back-foot is straight and forms a V-shape with his left arm. This ensures that he does not have to fall after delivering as we see many bowlers suffer such fate.
Another unusual similarity with regard to his action is it resembles exactly like a baseball pitcher. We can see that in the image below, with a great set of similarities especially the gap between their legs. This can give a good idea of why Starc is able to generate great pace.
ODI Statistics
Starc made his ODI debut against India in October 2010. He has played 91 matches for Australia over the decade, picking 178 wickets. 27 wickets of his 178 have come against Sri Lanka in 14 matches against whom he has played the most matches too.
Next on his frequent list is England against whom he picked 26 wickets. But his most successful opposition is West Indies. He has picked 21 wickets in just seven innings against them at an average of three per innings. His best bowling figures of 6/28 came against New Zealand at 2015 ICC World Cup. Overall, he has picked up 11 four-wicket hauls and 7 five-wicket hauls. He has a decent economy rate for a fast bowler, 5.1. What makes him much more potent in this format is that he has an excellent average and strike rate. He has an average of just 22.2 and strike rate of 26.1, suggesting he picks at least two wickets in nine overs. Having played just two world cups he is already in the top-5 most wicket-takers in world cup history. He has picked up 49 wickets in world cups, 27 in 2019 and 22 in 2015, leading the bowler’s chart on both occasions. Starc is definitely Australia’s go-to bowler these days in big tournaments. He has picked 82 home wickets in 43 matches, 51 wickets in 28 away matches and 45 wickets in 20 neutral matches. In Asian pitches, which are spinner friendly, he has picked up an impressive 29 wickets in just 14 matches. Let’s compare his statistics with other contemporary modern bowlers. The stats are taken only over the period 2010-19, a period in which Starc has played most of his career.
Strike rate and Average
The strike rate of the bowler is the number of balls delivered divided by the number of wickets taken. It signifies how often a bowler picks up a wicket to derail the opposition, whereas the average is the number of runs conceded per wicket taken by the bowler. Although both these stats involve the number of wickets both of them can be contrasting at times. There might be players who might have good averages or a good strike rate but not both at the same time.
We can see from the plot that Starc has the least average as well as the least strike rate among our set of bowlers. The thing to be noted though is few bowlers like Steyn and Malinga had their peak in the first half of the decade. Nevertheless, he has outperformed many great bowlers in this regard. We can see the likes of Cummins and Steyn have good averages but a poor strike rate. Also, Shami has a very good strike rate but his average is close to the mean, indicating sub-par. Rahman and Boult seem to be well balanced but eventually, they are still miles off Starc.
Four- and five-wicket hauls
Four- and five-wicket hauls are for the bowlers what the 50s and 100s are for the batsmen. These are pretty much a great milestone to have for bowlers. But sometimes the number of four- and five-wicket hauls can be deceiving. There are many bowlers who might be brilliant on their day picking five or six wickets but a day off they might even go wicketless. Even a two or three-wicket haul from a bowler can be pretty useful for the team than a five-wicket haul sometimes. He has picked 133 wickets in 57 matches that Australia have won, which is around 2.3 wickets/innings.
Again we can see Starc outperforming all the bowlers in both categories, wickets/innings and four- and five-wicket hauls. He has an average of 2.02 wickets per innings, most among the bowlers. We can see that he also picks up a four- or five-wicket haul every 4.75 games. We can see the likes of Woakes who has picked up a four- or five-wicket haul frequently but has very less than average wickets/innings. This shows that he is not very consistent. On the opposite, there are players like Bumrah, that are consistent in picking wickets but have a low conversion rate. Starc’s performance here is so dominant that he puts up a good conversion rate consistently.
Economy rate
One thing that bowlers have to keep in mind when playing the limited-overs format is that picking wickets aren’t the only important thing. A spell of 4/80 from a bowler, might look good but it can dearly cost a team the match. Whereas sometimes a spell of 1/20 in 10 overs can be a match-winning one.
From the plot, we can see that there are 4 categories of players. Players like Malinga and Wahab Riaz have higher than the average economy and fewer wickets/innings. There are players like Shami and Mustafizur who have recorded wickets frequently but are a tad expensive. The likes of Rabada, Steyn and Cummins have a very good economy rate but they are not a good wicket-taking option. Then we come down to the best set of bowlers here: Starc, Boult and Bumrah. Starc seems to be a great wicket-taking option with a less economy rate. Bumrah, on the other hand, has a good economy but is not someone against whom the batsmen are willing to take the risk. Starc couples well for his team to produce match-winning spells.
Test Statistics
Starc made his test debut against New Zealand in December 2011. He has played 57 matches for Australia over the decade, picking 244 wickets. 55 wickets of his 244 have come against England in 13 matches. Next on his frequent list is Sri Lanka against whom he picked 46 wickets. His best bowling figures of 6/50 came against them. Overall, he has picked up 13 5-wicket hauls and 2 10-wicket hauls (matches). He has a decent economy rate for a fast bowler, 3.36. Like in ODIs, his strike rate and average in test format are very impressive. He has an average of just 26.97 and strike rate of 48.1. Let’s compare his statistics with other contemporary modern bowlers. He has picked 150 home wickets in 32 matches, 88 wickets in 22 away matches and 6 wickets in 3 neutral matches. The stats are taken only over the period 2007-19, to accommodate most of the top bowlers of this generation’s peak years.
Strike rate vs Average
The ability to pick wickets is more important for bowlers in this format. The only way a bowling team can win matches is they have to get the opposition to an all-out before the end of the final day. In that case, a bowler’s strike rate and average reflect a lot on his capability to pick wickets.
In the chart, we can see that Steyn and Rabada have been the best bowlers with impressive averages and strike rate. Starc falls into the category of having an impressive strike rate but below-par average. Despite that, he has been much more impressive than some of the best test bowlers of 2010s like Johnson, Broad. He also fares better than Anderson when it comes to strike-rate as he is much more frequent in picking wickets.
Wickets/innings and 5-wicket hauls
We also have to look at how consistently a bowler picks wickets in matches he has played. Starc seems to be picking wickets at an excellent rate of 2.23 wickets per innings. He seems to be much more consistent than the likes of Broad, Anderson. He picks up a five-wicket haul after every 8 innings. Starc has been much more impressive than his compatriots Johnson and Hazelwood. Although, he still falls short of Steyn by a huge margin.
Away matches
What separates a great bowler from a good bowler is his ability to perform away from home. There many bowlers who have racked up huge records at home. But they fail to replicate the same away from home. Winning away matches in test cricket these days seems to be an implausible task for every team. Let’s compare the performance of Starc with other great bowlers of his generation in this regard.
Except for Steyn, Starc has performed exceedingly well then all the bowlers we have taken into account. He has been able to pick wickets at a very good rate of 2.1 wickets/innings (94 wickets in 795 overs), with a good average of 26.9. He strikes at a rate of 50.73 balls/wicket. We can see the likes of Johnson and Hazlewood having either conceded a lot of runs per wicket or having taken fewer wickets per innings.
Starc in this format has been underrated as most of the analysts tend to overlook his test achievements due to his exploits in limited-overs. Although, he is still a long way from reaching the level of Steyn and may not even reach Starc has been a true force for Australia when compared with the other great bowlers here.
Frequently dismissed players
Being a left-arm bowler, Starc is typically efficient against most of the right-hand batsmen today. His natural delivery which is an inswinger to the right-handers has caused them a lot of problems.
Bairstow and Karunaratne have been his ‘bunnies’, as they have fallen for him eight times. It has taken 10 matches for Starc to dismiss Bairstow 8 times. But Karunaratne has been dismissed the same in 7 matches with a dismissal coming in every 0.87 matches. Next on the list are Alastair Cook and Murali Vijay at six dismissals. In terms of matches/dismissals, the most frequent batsman is South Africa’s, Stephen Cook. He has been dismissed four times in just three matches by Starc at a rate of 0.75 matches/dis. He has found relatively good success against Virat Kohli dismissing him three times in 11 matches. But he also has an average over 42 against him, suggesting a fierce battle between them. The batsman he has found a tough time in dismissing is AB De Villiers, who has an average of 169.
T20 statistics
Mitchell Starc has picked up 43 wickets in 31 international T20 matches. Let’s look and analyze his other stats. In this format, his favourite team is Pakistan against whom he has 13 wickets and his next best is against Sri Lanka with 9.
Strike Rate vs Average
Starc has a very good strike rate of 16.1, picking a wicket almost every 3 overs and an average of 18.65. He has a better average than fellow left-arm pacers Mustafizur and Amir. Malinga, regarded as the greatest T20 bowler, has a paltry average and strike rate when compared with Starc.
Economy rate
The emphasis on maintaining a good economy rate is much more vital in T20s than in ODIs. A spell of 0/5 in 4 overs is more valuable to the team than a spell of 4/50. But still, the ability to pick wickets is also important to derail the progress of a batting team. A fast bowler’s ability to stop the flow of runs is always tested since most of them operate mostly in the powerplay, which has field restrictions and at the death.
Starc has a balanced set of stats in both categories. He has picked 1.38 wickets/match along with an economy of 6.91, which is great for a fast bowler operating in the powerplay and death. He fared better than the likes of Dale Steyn and Malinga in both categories. Starc falls short of Bumrah in terms of having a good economy but then Bumrah seems to be picking less than an average number of wickets/innings. So, the overall winner here is Starc.
Hunting Grounds
An interesting thing to note is Starc has picked up most of his wickets in Asian grounds than in his own country.
He has picked up 11 wickets in Colombo, 5 each in Dubai and Dhaka, thus highlighting his prowess in Asian conditions that are mostly spin-friendly. Going with that let’s see his performances in IPL.
IPL stats
Starc has picked up 34 wickets for Royal Challengers Bangalore over 2 seasons. He has an average of 20.38 and a strike rate of 17.06. His economy is very impressive for a fast bowler at 7.17, which is almost similar to Malinga’s at 7.14.
His ability to always target the stumps is denoted by his most frequent mode of dismissing the batsman. Of his 34 wickets, he has clean bowled batsman in 15 occasions, which makes 44.1% of his total.
Versatility across different formats
We saw his different mode of dismissals in IPL. The chart is similar to his mode of dismissals in T20i as well as ODIs. In the chart below we can see that more than 39% of his wickets have come from batsmen being clean bowled.
When we compare this with his mode of dismissing a batsman in test matches we can see the difference. In the image below we can see that 33.6% of his wickets have come from a catch and 25.4% of them have come from caught-behind. This can be due to batsmen being extra cautious in the test format to protect their stumps than in limited-overs, but the fact we cannot hide here is Starc’s ability to still get wickets by not targeting the stumps. He is able to swing the ball away from them, especially the right-handers. His natural delivery is an inswinger to the right-handers like we have discussed before, but an inswinging delivery will not fetch him caught-behind wickets (except in rare cases). So he targets the right-handers in test format with an outswinger, which is as potent as his inswinger.
The charts prove Starc’s versatility in different formats suggesting how he mixes up well. His variation of length is also notable. His ability to hit the good length balls and yorkers are well renowned. After all, Who can forget his yorker to dismiss Ben Stokes in the 2019 World Cup?
Conclusion
Starc has been one of the best fast bowlers of this generation. He has battled a lot of injuries throughout his career that has certainly derailed his progress. Despite that, he has always been reliable and ever potent when he picks up the ball. His ability to deliver under pressure and deliver in big tournaments is unquestionable. IPL has certainly missed his presence due to him prioritizing his fitness to play well for his nation.
Another 2-3 good years already in his bag, he will be key in Australia’s challenge for the upcoming T20 World Cup and ICC Test championship. His year-end battle with Virat Kohli, one of the game’s best batsman, is going to be mouth-watering when the two heavyweights clash this year in Australia.