NEW DELHI: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting thinks Mitchell Starc may have been more motivated to put on his best performance of his career in the second Test in Adelaide after India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal made a lighthearted comment during the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
In the second innings of the first game of the series in Perth, Jaiswal scored 161 and taunted Starc for “bowling too slow” during his fantastic knock.
Starc was amused by the remark at the time, but the left-arm fast had the last laugh when he dismissed the India opener for a duck with a peach of an opening delivery of the Adelaide encounter.
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While talking about Starc’s performance in the ICC Review episode, Ponting hinted that Jaiswal’s sarcastic remark might have given the seasoned player some more drive.
“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.
Ponting emphasized how Starc has modified his bowling technique to guarantee durability in all game types.
“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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