It didn’t take long for Mitchell Starc to send a message to his doubters – snaring a wicket with the first ball of the Ashes series.
It is just the fourth Test ever in the 145-year history of the Ashes where a wicket has been taken on the first ball.
Obviously, it’s a long summer – but the sound of the fresh Kookaburra smashing into Rory Burns’ stumps would have been music to the ears of Starc, who many had scribbled out of their prospective Ashes lineups.
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The timing couldn’t have been much sweeter for Starc with arguably his loudest critic, Shane Warne, on the commentary microphone at the time.
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“That looked like a half-volley at leg stump that he missed,” Warne said in the aftermath.
“There’s no swing!”
Mark Waugh – and the ball tracker – disagreed, saying that it swung late.
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In Warne’s defence, it was pretty awful footwork from Burns, who has now broken the record for most ducks by an opening batter in a single year.
The spin king was more complimentary to the rest of Starc’s first over, saying that it was the worst ball of the six that got the wicket.
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“The first one he got wrong – the rest were really good. He got the wicket with the ball he didn’t quite get right,” Warne said.
“It could have been a plan because Rory Burns gets across so far.”
Many had been calling for Starc to be replaced by Jhye Richardson, who has so far enjoyed a fruitful Shield season – including a devastating spell at the Gabba.
But Starc, who took his 256th Test wicket with the Burns dismissal, got the nod.
“Why do people always doubt Starc?” was a fair question from Aussie quick bowler Megan Schutt.
https://twitter.com/megan_schutt/status/1468371145078444032https://twitter.com/Peter_Fitz/status/1468370809555079168https://twitter.com/sthalekar93/status/1468370474556018688
The stunning moment set the tone for a first session of Australian dominance, as three more wickets fell within the first hour of play.
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