Mitchell Starc - a pink ball monster that continues to haunt teams

Just a month ago, the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders broke the bank, shelling a record fee of INR 24.75 crore for the Australian pacer Mitchell Starc. 

A few days after the event, Starc did not mince his words, stating that “Red ball is still top of the tree for me” in the lead-up to the Boxing Day clash against Pakistan. It was clear that Starc’s priorities were sorted, and it was to put up a top-notch display in the Australian Baggy Green. 

Starc’s commitment to the national team in the red-ball format is always up for national debate, but in the last two years, the left-arm pacer has converted the deterrents into followers, with one match-winning display after another. 

However, one thing was never in the debate: his form with the pink ball. Starc could well end up as one of the greatest bowlers to have bowled with the pink ball, with 65 wickets, averaging just 18.09, with three five-wicket hauls already in 22 innings. 

So, when West Indies won the toss and opted to bat first at the Gabba, all eyes were fixated on Starc and what he would do with the pink ball. With the very first ball, Starc’s intentions were vividly clear: he was going to trouble both the inside and the outside edge of Kraigg Brathwaite. 

With the pink ball in his hand, it was like Starc was in a different world altogether, with the two batters stuck in an alternate reality like it was a scene out of Inception. His height doesn’t allow the batters to come on the front foot, and his late movement doesn’t allow them to stay base on the back foot either. 

Brathwaite quickly noticed it when he was squared up early in the innings. But even then, he didn’t learn, or rather couldn’t learn, given Starc’s intensity with the pink ball. It is almost like the left-arm pacer has a different accuracy when the ball is pink compared to the red one. 

Four overs, two maidens, two runs, and multiple beats, Starc’s first spell set it up perfectly for the other Australian pacers. Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins bore the fruit of Starc’s first spell, with two wickets. 

At 54/2, West Indies seemingly found home in the conditions here at Gabba, where there was more bounce on offer than in Adelaide. It was easier to leave the ball, or so it seemed, till Cummins made the inspired bowling change to bring Starc back into the attack. 

Two balls, that’s all it took. It was on a good length, and the ball just moved enough to take Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s outside edge and straight to Steve Smith. 

Starc’s love life with the pink ball continued. 

It wasn’t that the 33-year-old was bowling fireballs over after over, he was just merely challenging the thoughts of the Windies batters, who wanted to attack the left-arm pacer proactively. It was that thought which resulted in an immediate downfall. One wicket brought the other. Alick Athanaze’s lazy push at the ball was enough for Starc to bag his 350th Test wicket, a feat that only two other Australian pacers have managed - Dennis Lillee and Glenn McGrath. 

“If I'm Mitch Starc, Be my Pink ball 😭,” said a comment on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). 

“Pink ball in Starc's hand is like mjolnir in Thor's hand,” read another comment. 

All of this while averaging 27.36 in an era where the game has tilted more and more towards the batters, Starc’s path to greatness couldn’t have been more obvious. But when you put the pink ball in front of Starc, that greatness transforms into an all-time great, with the ball acting like it has been possessed heavily by a supernatural figure. 

It would only be fitting if Starc said, “Pink ball is still top of the tree for me.”