Australia’s gun fast bowler Mitchell Starc has played down the prospect of overtaking Kapil Dev and Dale Steyn. Starc has scalped 433 wickets in his Test career and he is one away from equaling legendary Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 scalps and six wickets shy of Dale Steyn’s total of Test wickets.
Starc admitted it goes to show that he has played a bit at the top level. The left-arm seamer had a prolific run in 2025, finishing with 55 wickets in the red-ball version, the most for any bowler. Furthermore, Starc had a brilliant run in the Ashes against England, bagging 31 wickets in five Test matches at an impressive average of 19.93.
“It means I’ve played a bit,” Starc told Australian Associated Press when asked about the possibility of overtaking the aforementioned duo. “It is cool and very humbling to be spoken about it with those guys. But that stuff doesn’t mean a whole lot while you’re still playing. You don’t get too far ahead,” he added.
Starc admits that a lot of his recent success has come down to a clearer mindset. “You’re never as good or bad as you think or other people think you are,” Starc said. “I still moan and whinge about anything that goes wrong with or feels wrong. Even heading into [the last] summer, it didn’t feel like it clicked until the day before the Ashes.
“But I think what’s been a feature of our group and led by Ron [Head Coach Andrew McDonald] and Pat, is that whether it’s a good day, bad day, good over, bad spell, it’s done. Move on. What can you change in real time?”
The Australian veteran seamer has always tried to improve his bowling and add new arrows to his quiver.
“When you’re 36 and you’ve been around for 16 years, you’d like to think you’ve improved or got better at something,” Starc said.
“You’re also around that long because you’re able to develop and learn and improve. And you add in a few things like the wobble seam, consistency and other things. I have a pretty clear mindset on it all.”
Australia will face Bangladesh in the first Test in Darwin, commencing August 13.
