Starc ready to intimidate batsmen again
Image: Getty
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After an indifferent summer in England, when he slipped down the pecking order in the fast bowling attack, Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc is looking forward to a return season where he can “intimidate with pace”.
Starc, with a record 27 scalps, finished as the leading wicket-taker in the 2019 World Cup for the second consecutive edition of the tournament. However, he played just one Ashes Test in the five-match series; despite scoring an unbeaten half-century and returning four wickets in a win that resulted in Australia retaining the Ashes, he wasn’t an automatic selection in the XI.
The 29-year-old is now ready to swap the Dukes ball with the Kookaburra and bowl with searing pace on the high-bounce tracks Down Under.
“I’ll be trying to get back into the mindset of run in and bowl fast and intimidate with pace, and hopefully get a bit of swing. The Kookaburra ball doesn’t do as much as the Dukes ball and the wickets are generally flatter in Australia (and) it probably won’t seam around as much,” Starc told cricket.com.au.
“So that’s a little bit of a point of difference I can generate, those high speeds and get those batsmen jumping around. I think I developed my skills for English bowling and I was pretty happy with how I went about my work over there.”
