Australia’s left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc won the player of the match award for his stunning spell in the first Ashes Test against England in Perth. The Test match finished in just two days, with fast bowlers ruling the roost apart from the 69-ball century from Travis Head that stunned the visitors. Starc picked up 10 wickets in the match and took his overall tally in the World Test Championship (WTC) past 200 scalps.
Starc has now picked up 201 wickets in the WTC in just 97 innings at an average of 25 and a strike rate of 43.33 with 10 four-wicket and six five-wicket hauls. Notably, he is only the third bowler in history to complete 200 wickets and looks determined to add more in the near future.
Starc’s achievement headlines Australia’s domination
Interestingly, the other two bowlers to pick up more than 200 wickets in the WTC are also from Australia – Nathan Lyon (219) and Pat Cummins (215). Lyon bowled only two overs in the Perth Test while Cummins didn’t play due to injury. However, the three Australian bowlers, who have accounted for more than 600 wickets in the WTC so far, demonstrate the exceptional quality of the trio and Australia’s dominance over the last three editions.
For the unversed, Australia missed out on making the final in the inaugural edition of WTC but then defeated India in the second season to become the World Test Champions. They also made it to the final of the previous edition, only to lose to South Africa. They have already started the fourth WTC edition in style, winning all four matches they played so far.
Josh Hazlewood, the fourth member of this legendary bowling line-up, missed the most Test matches due to frequent injuries. He has picked up 131 wickets so far in 61 innings in the WTC at an average of 20.54 and a strike rate of 44.64. Hence, we can say that had Hazelwood played the majority of the Tests just like the other three bowlers, even he would’ve crossed the 200-wicket milestone by now.
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