How a relaxed Mitchell Starc scythed through India’s batting line-up with swing and sting | Cricket News

At the start of the Perth Test there were two questions posed about the Indians. What would happen if Jasprit Bumrah doesn’t strike and what would happen to the Indian batsmen if the ball moves around? Bumrah and Co. answered it magnificently in both innings of the first Test, but those questions have returned again in Adelaide after India were bowled out for 180. The batsmen are yet to respond positively – they did in the second innings of the first Test but there was significant difference in pitch conditions from the first day at Perth. Now the question lingering around on Adelaide night air is whether the Indian bowlers can pull off a jailbreak again on the second day, after their middling show on Friday evening.An attack that bowled with purpose, imagination, and plan in the first Test was a tad awry with their lines and lengths. Australia’s Mitchell Starc had shown them the way with his line of attack and the ability to swing the pink ball, before their under-fire batsmen Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne played a dogged hand to reach 86 for 1.
The takeaway from Starc’s six-for that rocked India was how much relaxed he was through the day, compared to his usual demeanour. It wasn’t only because the wickets came, but it seemed his chosen state of mind. A first-ball wicket, a lovely curler from the leg stump line that trapped Yashasvi Jaiswal, would have helped, but it was a joyous Starc who whipped the crack of doom on the Indians. Not the intense Starc, not the angry Starc, not the out-to-prove-a-point Starc, but a happy smiling version that did the trick.

Mitchell Starc sends Virat Kohli packing!#AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/2AzNllS7xT
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 6, 2024
The takeaway from India’s efforts was that the batsman can’t afford to let slip good positions, and hope Bumrah can keep bailing them out. India slipped from 69 for 1 to 81 for 4, and Starc and Scott Boland, who replaced an inured Josh Hazlewood, tightened the noose further in the second session. And when Pat Cummins, who is yet to hit his peak form this series, conjured a snorter to startle Rishabh Pant who couldn’t but fend it off to the slips, the writing was on the wall.
Swing dividends
Amongst all the bowlers on view, from both teams, only Starc is a proper swinger of the ball. The rest mostly tend to seam the ball around. At least on this day, perhaps due to the muggy conditions overhead, the pink ball rewarded the bowler with the skill to swing, rather than seam. Though it must be said that Scott Boland, who hit the deck and got the ball to nip back, was also impressive in phases. It didn’t help that the Indian bowlers didn’t make the Australian batsmen play more often. Their lines were a bit outside off stump and their lengths were initially too short for this track. But Starc had the ball curling and weaving around.
It was during India’s 2018-19 tour that Starc’s second coming began. It started with a self-imposed social-media ban. He had been under fire for his below-par bowling performances in that series that would go down in the lore for Cheteshwar Pujara’s heroics. The outside noise got to him. Many former Australian players were gunning for him, and he had allowed all that to get to him. In the past, he had used barbs as motivation to prove others wrong; now he decided enough was enough, time to focus on the inside.

FIRST BALL OF THE TEST!
Mitchell Starc sends Adelaide into delirium.#AUSvIND | #PlayOfTheDay | @nrmainsurance pic.twitter.com/pIPwqlX3dJ
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 6, 2024
On January 2nd 2020, he pulled out of social media, stopped lening to advice from others, sought out the services of New Zealand’s Andre Adams, a coach at New South Wales, did mini-course corrections with his action – and most importantly, decided to spend the rest of his career doing it for the joy of bowling. Not that there haven’t been stumbles in form since, but they haven’t been only due to any attempts to please the others. Somewhere, inside, though he often seems to struggle with it, he has sensed the importance of his mental space.
Even here, he took a couple of potshots about “outside noise from the media room”, but they weren’t about his game, but about the criticism about Mitchell Marsh’s fitness and the batsmen’s performances at Perth.
It was against India again that set the tongues wagging after he nabbed just one wicket and gave away 111 runs in the second innings in Perth. Jaiswal sledged him with “you are slow”, though it was probably in response to Starc’s remark to Harshit Rana that he was faster than the young Indian. Starc would claim later that he didn’t even hear Jaiswal say that line, and praise the Indian as the batsman to watch out for in the years to come.
Bold Boland
During India’s best phase with the bat, when KL Rahul and Shubman Gill were batting, it was Boland who kept them honest. Then Starc returned to harass. He had one to jump at Rahul, who stabbed it to behind the stumps where Sweeney took a good lunging catch, inches off the turf. Starc then took out Kohli with a regulation angler; the batsman unsure whether to play or leave, edging it to through to Steve Smith at first slip. With Gill playing all around a full ball from Boland, India slipped from 69 for 1 to 81 for 4.

Career-best figures for Mitch Starc ⭐️#AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/JDE2iWUrOs
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 6, 2024
It was Boland again with a sharp nipbacker post lunch that got rid of the Indian captain Rohit Sharma, out lbw, that once again kickstarted another collapse. Rohit had shaped to defend on the front foot but hadn’t contended with that extent of inward movement, and couldn’t get any wood behind the pink leather. Pant, who probably played the grittiest Indian knock of the day, shelving his adventurous instincts in an effort to weather the storm, was surprised a bouncer from Pat Cummins. Pant had been standing outside the crease and Cummins’s well-directed bouncer had Pant almost shut his eyes and use his bat as a face-shield.

Just when an attacking R Ashwin tried to kickstart a mini-revival with the impressive Nitish Reddy, Starc returned to shut down any such hope. A peach of an inswinging yorker nailed Ashwin in front of middle, and another yorker clattered into the stumps of Harshit Rana. Reddy smashed a little cameo, taking 21 off a Boland over with a reverse-lapped six over third man being a special highlight, but he would be the last man to fall, trying to heave another big hit. At that point, India would have hoped that their bowlers would be able to do what Starc and Boland did, but their radar was off. Which India would turn up on Saturday afternoon?