Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes a cheeky remark from India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal during the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series may have given extra motivation to Mitchell Starc to deliver his career-best performance in the second Test in Adelaide. Jaiswal contributed a knock of 161 in the second innings of the series opener in Perth. During his stellar knock, he remarked that Starc was "bowling too slow". The comment brought a wry smile to the face of Starc at the time, but it was the left-arm quick that had the last laugh when he dismissed the India opener for a duck with a peach on the very first delivery of the match in Adelaide.
Ponting, while discussing Starc's form in the ICC Review episode, suggested the veteran quick may have received some extra motivation from Jaiswal's cheeky comment.
“He's actually a pretty level-headed guy, Mitchell Starc. He doesn't get flustered too much, even you see when he's bowling now. And if one of the batters does happen to say something, he generally responds with a little smile on his face. But I think that smile on his face might be just a bit of a cover for the fire that's burning inside. Look, he bowled beautifully in Adelaide didn't he?" Ponting said.
Starc, 34, stands as one of the most decorated pacers in modern cricket. With an impressive 692 wickets across all formats, he has won nearly every major title with Australia, including two ICC Men's Cricket World Cup trophies (2015 and 2023), the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2021 and the ICC World Test Championship in 2023.
Ponting, however, was full of praise for Starc, emphasising how he has adapted his bowling style to ensure longevity across all formats of the game.
“He certainly deserves high praise. I mean, he's probably in the last couple of years been better than he's ever been. And the reason that I say that is I think he's a more consistent bowler now than he's ever been before, yet his pace is still about the same as it always was. I mean, he could bowl over 150km/h probably a few years ago and he's in absolute prime now. He's sort of operating in the mid-140s, but his consistency, the way he's starting spells is really good now as well," he said.
“I was really impressed by how he started his first spell in Perth and then the way he started his first spell in Adelaide was obviously unbelievably good. So his pink-ball record speaks for itself, and I think talking to some of the players as well, I think the reason why his pink ball record is so good is I think the pink ball actually performs very similar to the white ball.
“And we know what sort of record that Mitchell Starc has got with a white-ball. That might be a part of the reason why," he concluded.
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