10 Facts About Mitchell Starc

Mitchell Starc was born on January 30, 1990 at Baulkham Hills, Sydney. Starc is a potent bowler in Aussie pace battery and has already tumbled a few records on his way. The left arm pacer is already among the Top 5 wicket takers in World Cup history though he played just 2 editions of the tournament (2015-2019).

Here are some of the cool facts about Mitchell Starc:

10. Wicket Keeper-Batsman turned bowler

Starc started as a wicket keeper batsman at Berala Sports Cricket Club in Sydney. As a 9 years old he represented Northern District as a wicketkeeper and that is exactly where he met his future wife. He idolized Australian legend Adam Gilchrist.

Around the age of 14 years, he was convinced by a club coach to drop drop wicket keeping and make bowling as his prominent career.

9. The fastest to 150 ODI wickets

Mitchell Starc achieved the milestone of 150 wickets in 77 ODI matches – the fastest by any bowler in ODI history

8. Top Cricketer Wife

He is married to his childhood friend and Australian Women team wicket keeper, Alyssa Healy since April 15, 2016. Alyssa is the niece of former Australian wicket keeper Ian Healy.

7. Two Hat-tricks in a Match

In 2017, in a Sheffield Shield game against Western Australia, Starc became the first bowler in Shield cricket and 8th player in a first class match, to pick up two hat-tricks. He finished with the figures of 7/97 (4 for 56 & 3 for 41) in the match.

6. First No.9 Batsman to be OUT on 99

In 2013, when Starc was dismissed for 99 in the tour of India – he became the first batsman to be dismissed for 99 after coming in at No.9 in a Test match. He is also the first tail-ender to play at least 100 balls in both the innings of a Test match and has the distinction of also bowling 200 balls in that match.

5. Fastest Ball in Test Cricket

In the Perth Test of 2015 between Ausrtalia and New Zealand, on Day 3 – Starc delivered his a rapid thunderbolt of a delivery 160.4 kmph. This turned out to be the fastest ball ever bowled in Test Cricket. The highest electronically measured speed for a ball bowled by any bowler is 161.3 km/h (100.23 mph) by Shoaib Akhtar against England (Nick Knight was the batsman facing him) during the 2003 World Cup match at Cape Town, South Africa.

4. First ever bowler to bowl with Pink Ball

Mitchell Starc became the first bowler to bowl in a day-night test match ever when he delivered the first ball with a pink ball against New Zealand at Adelaide in 2015. Martin Guptill was the first batsman to face it.

3. Atheltic Brother

Mitchell Starc’s younger brother Brandon Starc is a Australian high jumper who has won medals at various high profile events including the 2018 Commonwealth Games in which he claimed ‘Gold’ for his country.

2. Most Wickets in a single World Cup edition

Mitchell Starc picked 27 wickets in 10 matches he played in the 2019 edition of Cricket World Cup. He broke the record held by his countryman Glenn McGrath who picked 26 wickets in 11 matches in the 2007 edition of the tournament.

1. Pollard v Starc

Easily the most ugliest moment of IPL 2014 was the altercation between Mitchell Starc (RCB) and Kieron Pollard (MI).

While Pollard was batting, he and Starc exchanged heated words with each other after a bouncer. Next ball, Pollard pulled out of his stance, but Starc didn’t abort his run-up and threw the ball at Pollard. The enraged Pollard responded by hurling his bat in the direction of Starc before the umpires and Chris Gayle stepped in to stablize the situation.

Pollard was fined 75 percent while Starc lost 50 percent of his match fee.