Mitchell Starc seeks legend’s advice in bid to revive Test career
Mitchell Starc will seek out cricket’s greatest left-arm fast bowler this summer in a bid to get the jump on Australia’s deep well of fast-bowling talent.
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Mitchell Starc wants to track down Pakistan legend Wasim Akram for another left-arm fast bowling tutorial as he looks to revive his Test career at the Gabba this month.
Starc and Akram enjoyed a net session at the SCG during an Indian tour of Australia that Akram commentated and the 53-year-old will again sit behind the microphone this summer.
“Hopefully we’ll catch up again,” Starc told the Herald Sun.
“I haven’t seen him for a while. It’s been great having brief chats with him at different stages.
“I got to chat to him for about half an hour at the SCG nets, so that was pretty cool. We were just talking about wrist positions and how he went about it.
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“He obviously had a really fast arm action as well, and it was just nice to chat to another left-arm bowler about left-arm bowling.
“There’s not too many coaches around that are left-armers so it was nice to spend time alongside Mitch Johnson for a number of years and to chat to another in Wasim was pretty cool.”
Akram said two years ago that Starc was among his favourite bowlers on the planet, labelling his yorker the best in the world.
Starc, 29, will open the bowling against Pakistan in Perth on Friday and said that he unleashed the same simple game plan in T20 cricket as the 50-over format.
Coach Justin Langer rates Starc as the best white-ball cricketer in the world and he has been the leading wicket-taker at the past two ODI World Cups.
But Starc was left to carry the drinks in four Ashes Tests this year as Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Siddle and James Pattinson were preferred.
Starc had to overhaul his bowling style to suit conditions in England, although “airspeed” remains his key weapon at home.
“I had to change the way that I bowled to align with how the team approach was over in the UK,” Starc said.
“I was pretty happy with how I progressed with that.
“It wasn’t really about the airspeed or how I’d approach bowling in Australia, I had to look for seam movement and economy rates were a big part of the approach for our guys.”
While Starc was a wicketkeeper growing up, he has spent plenty of time watching YouTube videos of Akram was destroying batting line-ups.
Akram’s 414 Test wickets remains No.1 for Pakistan while he sits 14th overall.
Originally published as Mitchell Starc seeks legend’s advice in bid to revive Test career