How Mitchell Starc may follow the lead of England greats to reach 100 Test matches

Mitchell Starc might be Australia’s greatest ever all-format bowler, but if push comes to shove there is only one choice in the format he will try and pursue into his mid-30s and beyond.

At the start of his career he was battling to play two Tests in a row, but now Mitchell Starc wants to join Glenn McGrath as the only fast bowlers to play 100 of them.

Starc sits on 89 Tests heading into this summer’s showdown against India, and the 34-year-old has not ruled out following the blueprint England stalwarts Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad took to maximising their longevity in Test cricket and scaling back his white ball commitments for Australia.

No decisions have been made as yet, but the whole reason Starc is within touching distance of the sacred mark of 100 matches in the baggy green is because of the immense sacrifices he has made to prioritise Test cricket above all else.

Mitchell Starc currently sits on 89 Tests heading into the Aussie Summer. Picture: AFP PHOTO / LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI

Starc declined to play in the Indian Premier League for eight straight years – a decision which has conservatively cost him upwards of $15 million – primarily to ensure he was always in peak mental and physical shape for Test cricket.

For Starc, 100 Tests is much more than a number, it’s symbolic of what representing his country in the ultimate format of the game has meant to him.

“Yeah it’d be cool. It’s a long way off. Eleven Tests, particularly with the year we’ve had, we don’t play a Test until the summer,” Starc said, with McGrath (124) the only Aussie quick to have played more.

“I’ll take it period by period. There’s seven Tests this summer (five against India, two in Sri Lanka) so we’ll see how we go with the body and form and the rest of it.

“But if it got to that point, it would be very humbling and something to be proud of.”

The rapid ascension of Starc to 89 Tests is even more extraordinary when you consider he spent the early part of his career battling for a place in an attack already featuring left-armer Mitchell Johnson, and was for a long time only conservatively used in fits and starts by selectors.

Starc competed for a spot in Australia’s bowling attack with the already featured, Mitchell Johnson. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Starc is already an iron man of fast bowling and has taken note of how Broad managed to still be firing in Test cricket into his late 30s and Anderson into his early 40s.

The only difference is Starc is arguably Australia’s greatest ever white ball bowler - and spearhead of the current World Cup campaign in the West Indies - whereas Anderson and Broad’s skill sets more obviously suited red ball cricket exclusively.

If David Warner is Australia’s greatest all-format batsman, Starc is the country’s greatest all-format bowler, and the big left-armer says his body will tell him if and when he ought to follow the lead of Anderson and Broad.

“Yeah there’s no doubt that helps with the longevity. They only had to worry about the one format for a long time. And at the same time they were two of the best to have done it,” Starc said.

“My body will have a lot to say about it. But if I had it my way Tests would be the last to drop off.

“Whether that’s dropping one format or two to prolong the Test career, I don’t know yet.

“Tests are always going to be the priority. I would love to play as much Test cricket as I can.

“My body is feeling alright after a pretty long stint.

“I’ve got six to eight weeks after this tournament to refresh or let the mind and the body have a bit of a break and then we’ve got a couple of tours before a massive summer.

“I certainly haven’t made any decisions for the next period of time.

Mitchell Starc will take some time to refresh after the Twenty20 World Cup. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

“It’s three years to the next one day World Cup, so whether that’s out of reach, and the next T20 is in two years.

“For a group of the age we are, there’s no doubt a lot of us are closer to the end. That looks different for different people.

“If you’re a three format player you obviously look at what Davey has done for a long period of time and he’s obviously dropped off the formats over the last period of time.

“I’ve got a bit of a break after this World Cup so it’s a chance to refresh and whether it’s think about that stuff, or think about nothing about cricket, it will be fantastic.”

In the early hours of Tuesday morning AEST, Australia will face India in the crunch game of their all-Asian World Cup Super 8s draw.

Starc is fresh from living up to his mouth-watering $4 million price tag in his return to the IPL this year having starred when it mattered for the championship-winning Kolkata Knight Riders in the finals.

The reason Starc chose to end his IPL hiatus was specifically to prepare for this T20 World Cup in a year which featured no overseas Test tours.

Two months bowling to Indian batsmen will count in his favour when he charges in against Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s men in St Lucia, as Australia chase more World Cup glory.

“It’ll play a part, but it’s very different conditions,” Starc said of the differences between the IPL and the World Cup.

“There’s no impact player rule and there’s no scores of 270, which is why batters are whinging about the wickets over here – because they can’t score 270.

“It’ll be a fascinating game. Obviously that’s our third game so hopefully we’ve cemented a semi-final spot and it can be a really exciting game.

“But the nature of T20 cricket is we know anything can happen.

“The other positive out of the IPL is we’ve got a group of guys who have played a lot against India. Even the guys who haven’t played IPL, we’ve played a lot of cricket against India over the recent period of time.

“Likewise, they will have seen us as well, so it works both ways.”

Originally published as How Mitchell Starc may follow the lead of England greats to reach 100 Test matches