Follow UsWhen a 21-year-old Mitchell Starc made his Test debut, he could never have imagined that he would go on to play 100 Tests and become an all-time great in Australian cricket. But over the next decade, the left-arm pacer has done exactly that, with 395 red-ball wickets, averaging 27.39.
"I didn't think I'd play one (Test)," Starc told Cricket.com.au.
"(It's) pretty humbling to play that much. A huge honour, probably something more to reflect on when I'm finished.”
Starc is only behind Wasim Akram in terms of left-arm pacers with the most wickets in Tests. Not just that, as it stands, the left-arm pacer will only become the second Australian pacer to make 100 Test appearances, after Glenn McGrath.
"Anytime you're mentioned alongside some of those names, like Glenn (and) I've been fortunate enough to play with Mitchell Johnson (73 Tests), 'Sidds' (Peter Siddle, 67 Tests) and 'Rhino' (Ryan Harris, 27 Tests) and to have a bit of relationship with Brett (Lee, 76 Tests), I've been very lucky through cricket to a meet those guys and then play alongside or learn different pieces from them.
"I've had Craig McDermott (71 Tests) as bowling coach and (current Australia assistant coach) Dan Vettori (113 Tests, 362 wickets) has taken a lot of Test wickets as well, so if I do get there, that'd be incredibly humbling.”
While early on, Starc was rarely viewed as a threat, he went on to form a fearsome partnership with Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins as Australia’s best-ever troika in the red-ball format.
“And I guess it just means I'm a bit older," he said.
The left-arm pacer has the fourth-most wickets in Tests since 2020, after Nathan Lyon, Ravichandran Ashwin and Pat Cummins, with 155 wickets, averaging 27.9.
"But to have some impact along (the way) in those games, to get somewhere near the 400-mark has been good fun," Starc concluded.