The Ashes 2025: Mitchell Starc to surpass Wasim Akram as most prolific left-armed bowler in Tests
The majesty of Mitchell Starc is set to receive a gold-studded moment when he passes the greatest left-arm bowler in history in a fewer number of Tests when the Ashes moves to Brisbane.
The majesty of Mitchell Starc is set to receive a gold-studded moment when he passes the greatest left-arm bowler in history in a fewer number of Tests.
Starc needs just three wickets in Brisbane to surpass Wasim Akram’s mark of 414 wickets, after a 10-wicket masterclass against England in Perth which Brett Lee hailed as the best of the Australian ironman’s career.
Akram played 104 matches for Pakistan – and only last week was rated by Ian Healy as the greatest bowler he faced in an era when fast bowling was at its best – and now Starc is set to eclipse him in what will be his 102nd Test in Brisbane.
Remarkably, at age 35, Starc’s Test bowling average of 26.64 is the lowest of any point in his career.
Kayo Sports commentator Lee believes for all his success as a 400-wicket great of the game, Starc is still widely underrated for the impact he has had on Test cricket given he has shared his career with Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
Without his two lieutenants alongside him, Starc followed up his seven-wicket first innings performance with three in the second to keep Australia in the Test match and produce an Ashes performance for the ages.
“To get 10-for is incredible. That to me is the Holy Grail if you’re a bowler. To do it under pressure and to do it when he hasn’t got that comfy blanket of Hazlewood and Cummins next to him is extraordinary,” Test great Lee said in Perth where he is calling for Kayo.
“It’s almost like he has always had that security of knowing that if he misses out one spell, Cummo will come on and he’ll build pressure from the other end as well.
“But in this Test, he had to really be the lion-hearted bowler here.
“He had to step up to the plate.
“There’s times in a career where you’re presented with that opportunity. And some people grab it, some people shy away from it and it all goes to water.
“He, as I thought he would, with his personality and with his confidence as a bowler – he stepped up to the plate and he bowled beautifully.
“I’d put that down to probably the finest spell I’ve seen him bowl.”
In this Test, Starc closed in on England great James Anderson as the most prolific first-over wicket-taker in Test history.
The left-armer is really one of cricket’s ultimate all-time strike weapons.
Lee believes Starc is still chronically underrated, not only for his bowling record but for the financial sacrifices he has made by often bypassing franchise cricket to put Australia first.
“Four hundred Test wickets, say no more. Unbelievable record, unbelievable bowler, unbelievable bloke,” Lee said.
“If you’re ticking a box as to what makes, firstly an absolute superstar cricketer, but you want someone in your team that is literally in it for the right reasons and puts the whole team first, he’s such a selfless player.
“He ticks every single box. He is underrated.”
Scott Boland’s second innings 4-33 was an absolutely superb comeback after he struggled, uncharacteristically in the first innings.
Lee said it showed Boland’s character as a great bowler.
“That’s a credit to him as a person but also the way that he can deal with that pressure,” Lee said.
“If you look at what he averages against every other team when he’s allowed to bowl his line and length, he averages 16 and then obviously the last series he played against England was about 110.
“They tried to do that again, tried to put him off his game. And it worked in the first innings. He was very un-Boland like and he overpitched the ball, he bowled a little bit wide.
“But I knew because he’s such a talented player, he wouldn’t let that happen two innings in a row. And he’s done that.”
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