Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes a cheeky remark from India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal during the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series might have given extra motivation to Mitchell Starc to deliver his career-best performance in the second Test in Adelaide.
He had added 161 runs during the Perth match of the series-opener, where he had provided crucial comments during his brilliant knock when he said that Starc was "bowling too slow".
The comment drew a wry smile for the then Starc in that match, but little did Jaiswal knew, it was the very same Starc who had given Jaiswal a goose-bump when he dismissed India opener on the very first ball of the match in Adelaide and that too with an absolute peach.
Ponting, talking about Starc's form in the ICC Review episode, said that Jaiswal's cheeky comment might have given the veteran quick some extra motivation.
"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 years of age, is the most decorated pacer in the game of modern cricket. With a total of 692 wickets in all formats, he has won almost every single title with Australia, such as two ICC Men's Cricket World Cup trophies, both in 2015 and 2023, the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2021, and the ICC World Test Championship in 2023.
However, Ponting was full of praise for Starc, elaborating on how he has adjusted his bowling style to ensure that he remains long-lasting 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 kind of running 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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