Top 5 Australian left-arm fast bowling greats

#5 Mitchell Starc

Towering at 1.96m, Mitchell Starc rarely gets the deadly bouncers wrong. Perfecting the swing of the ball to a greater precision than his senior, Mitchell Johnson, the 26-year-old became a permanent face in the limited-overs side since his international debut in 2010.

Starc became a star bowler in the Australian side during the 2015 World Cup, bowling unpredictable inswingers and regularly striking off the bails. His innate ability to get the batsman caught in the front won him the ‘Player of the Tournament’ at the World Cup, for his 22 victims at 10.18.

It was naturally expected that the left-arm pacer would continue his excellent form even with the red ball, but a lack of opportunities in his early Test career did not allow him to do justice to his potential. When he finally got into the zone in 2015 and began to make a mark in what is known as the ‘purest’ format of the game, an ankle injury during the summer hindered his successful stint.

Post recovery, Starc has been brilliant in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka, picking up 17 wickets in the two Tests played. He has a good 232 international wickets to his name so far, with six impressive 5-wicket hauls.

The Aussie has even proved to be a useful lower-order batsman, missing out on his Triple-digit figure in Tests by just one run, in Mohali in 2013. He may just stick-on to become one of Australia’s most promising fast bowlers.