The self-doubt that haunted Mitchell Starc

With the veteran closing in on 100 Tests, he reveals that for years he was unsure whether he was good enough for Test cricket.

I interviewed Mitch Starc a few days before the first Test in Galle. It was probably the most profound mood I’d ever found him in during an interview. For someone who has generally kept his cards close to his chest, Starc was being rather open, even prepared to give a slightly deeper glimpse into the person behind the cricketer. It was riveting.

I couldn’t resist probing his mood a bit further to see how much he would let me in.

“Since you’re in a such a profound state, I just want to know if this is the happiest you have been ever in your life, as a person and as a cricketer,” was my query.

Starc’s response was a chuckle before he went, “Herrre we go. Well, I have nothing to complain about. And I don’t listen to or let silly things bother me anymore. So ...” followed by a wide smile. The answer to my “profound” query, I gathered, was an overwhelming YES! This is indeed the happiest Mitch Starc has been, both as a cricketer and as a person.

Mitchell Starc celebrates taking a wicket in Galle Picture: AFP

And most of it, like he told me in the chat for The Weekend Australian, was to do with him no longer suffering any fools or letting the “silly things” get to him.

It’s also about switching himself off from cricket when he’s not on the field, a skill he’s taken a while to develop. But one, as he says now, he’s adept at.

“It’s easy to say now that I’m 34 and have played for 15 years, whether you switch things off or not. There was definitely a point where I, up to a point, saw or read everything and took it on as, I’ll either prove you wrong (or not). Then it got to a point where it was just, switch it off. I don’t need to (prove you wrong).”

Starc has since turned 35, having celebrated his birthday only a couple of days ago, but the mere fact that he’s wheeled away without ever losing his pace or his potency is an ode in itself to the “warrior” tag he’s been given by Pat Cummins and his fellow teammates. “You change as a person, not just as a cricketer, and learn to listen to the right things or switch off when you need to,” said Starc. “I feel like I’ve certainly done that over the years and my approach to everything that comes with cricket has changed.

Australian captain Alyssa Healy playing her 287th international for Australia in the women’s Test at the MCG, the same number of internationals as her husband Mitchell Starc has played Picture: AFP

“I’m a lot more comfortable as a player and as a person because of that. That perhaps is now why, whether it’s a bit more calmness, the silly things don’t matter to me as much anymore. Focus change, people change. There was all this extra noise. It got to a point where I just switched it off. I got off social media, I got off caring what people said. It didn’t matter, all it did was get in my head. It was just all this noise that I didn’t need.

“I felt like that was a point of change for me where I was a lot more comfortable.”

The time he decided to switch away from the external noises also coincided with a period of great success. He cites the 2018-19 home summer when the TV coverage was expanded with the split between Fox Cricket and Channel 7 as the turning point. He was to pick out crucial moments where he managed to douse the self-doubts that he’d carried since making what he considers a slightly premature Test debut.

For him, Test cricket was the format where he felt he least belonged, wondering whether he was good enough despite having already mastered the skills of white-ball cricket rather early in his career.

“Test cricket was the one that was the hardest for me to feel like I was good enough for,” said Starc. “I was very raw and young when I first started, coming out of (wicket) keeping into bowling probably a lot later than a lot of younger guys, who had always bowled. That was probably a part of it (self-doubt), just learning my body, learning how to bowl for longer and more consistent (periods).

Starc, right, learned a lot from Mitchell Johnson Picture: Getty Images

“I wasn’t very consistent for a long time. I probably wasn’t ready when I debuted and had to learn on my feet a bit. My first two Tests were back-to-back but then I was in and out for the next 12 and played one at a time. That’s a bit of it. There were other bowlers who were better.”

Starc learned a lot from training and playing alongside Mitchell Johnson, effectively a shadow to his fellow fiery left-arm fast bowler. Starc also makes a special mention of James Pattinson, among bowlers who he felt were better than him in his early years, and the impact the Victorian had despite a curtailed career.

There’s been no reason for him to not be happy with life so far in Galle. With the Australian batters having batted most of the first two days, which were probably most humid, Starc got to put his feet up and take it easy.

And then with the ball, he’s already got two wickets in his early burst to sneak ever so closer to that 400-wicket mark, now just 22 away. Not to forget one Test closer to that remarkable landmark of becoming only the second Australian fast bowler after Glenn McGrath to play a 100 Tests.

Quite an achievement, considering his reputation for being injury-prone.

Coincidentally, he’s playing his 287th international game for his country simultaneously with his wife Alyssa Healy playing her 287th for her country. Being together on this journey with a fellow elite athlete is another reason he cites for the maturity. So, how special will a 100th Test be if he gets there?

“It’d be very humbling. It could all finish in two Tests’ time. Who knows. It’d be nice to get to if I get to it. So, I want to try and be good enough for as long as I can be.”

Profound again, as seems to be the case with all things Mitchell Starc now.