Picture by Vaughn Ridley/SWPix.com. Mitchell Starc during his short spell with Yorkshire during the summer of 2012.
Rich Pyrah has described his former team-mate Mitchell Starc as “Australia’s best weapon this winter”, a theory strengthened by his 10-wicket performance in the opening Ashes Test in Perth on Friday and yesterday.
Former all-rounder Pyrah played with the Aussie fast bowler during his brief spell as a Yorkshire overseas player in 2012, when he helped the county to the Vitality Blast final against Hampshire at Cardiff.
Starc was 22-years-old when he signed on at Headingley and took 36 wickets across 16 matches in all competitions. His main impact was in T20 cricket, while he only played two County Championship matches and one of those was heavily rain-affected against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay.
While he had already debuted in Test Match and ODI cricket for Australia at that time, he was very much in the infancy of his international career.
Pyrah, now Yorkshire’s women’s head coach, is obviously impressed with the way the left-arm quick has developed, as he is with Starc’s Ashes adversary Joe Root, who was at the time preparing to make his Test debut later that year.
Both are now amongst the world’s very best, with Starc striking the first blow by dismissing Root in both innings in the series opener.
“Mitch was very raw at the time,” recalled Pyrah.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yorkshire’s current women’s coach Rich Pyrah played with Mitchell Starc for the White Rose county.
“He came over with a reputation of being really quick, and what we saw was an unbelievable athlete. He was doing his running drills and things like that, and you were like, ‘Wow, this guy is a proper athlete’.
“When he was in the nets, he was quick but a bit erratic. But that made him really hard to hit.
“He was also a genuinely good guy who fitted in really well.
“During that Blast campaign, he just gave us that little bit of edge bowling at the pace he did.
“His action was just perfectly suited to bowling those death yorkers. He gets a little bit slingy, and he’s always full with his length.”
Despite seeing more of Starc – now aged 35 – with the white ball during that said summer, Pyrah is not surprised that he has gone on to play 101 Test Matches and take 412 wickets.
He is Australia’s fourth all-time leading Test Match wicket-taker, with his Perth performance supplemented by a dashing second-innings century by Travis Head – another former Yorkshire overseas player.
Picture by Gareth Copley/Getty Images. Mitchell Starc claimed seven wickets in the first innings at Perth on Friday.
“We knew his potential,” Pyrah said of Starc. “We got him at such a young age, and I think he’d only come into bowling quite late as well.
“If he could just find some more consistency with his line and length, he was always likely to be an unbelievable bowler in all formats. And he has. He’s figured it out, and he’s one of the best bowlers in the world.”
Pyrah continued: “It obviously helps with him him being left-arm and swinging it at 90mph. There aren’t many of them around, and it’s gold dust.
“But one of his biggest attributes is, as I mentioned earlier, his athleticism.
“He stays on the park, which is a big thing for the type of bowler he is. He doesn’t miss many games at all.
“I would say that he’s Australia’s best weapon this winter.
“You can rely on him for his overs and his games, especially now that they’ve had Hazlewood and Cummins out injured.”
Picture by Gareth Copley/Getty Images. Mitchell Starc celebrates dismissing his former Yorkshire team-mate Joe Root on the opening day of the Ashes.
Coach Jason Gillespie was able to field a team filled with young talent.
“It was a really exciting period for us,” added Pyrah.
“You had Rooty, Starcy, Jonny (Bairstow) and David Miller as well. We took a punt on a couple of players with real potential, and it worked.
“It’s been great to see them develop over time. It started in 2012, and it’s come to this now in the Ashes for Rooty and Starcy. It’s going to be really exciting to watch them go at it over the next few weeks.”
