Australia can win The Ashes later this month when they take on England in the fourth Test at Old Trafford. And Australia star Mitchell Starc has dished a secret after revealing he has been using his wife’s cricket bat throughout the series.
Fast-bowler Starc, who has taken 13 wickets in the opening three Tests, married Australia women’s captain Alyssa Healy in 2016. And he has been using one of her willows for the past seven months.
“It’s a little bit lighter,” Starc explained. “Anrich Nortje of South Africa was bowling pretty fast during our summer at home so I thought I’d try a lighter bat. I was cleaning out a few cricket bags at home while Alyssa was on tour. I said to her, ‘You know there are three bats in this bag?’
“She didn’t know. And then I told her, ‘Well, there’s two now. The other one’s in my bag.’ All I had to do was add an extra rubber grip to the handle. I think it’s one-all now because she took one of mine a few years ago. She cut the handle off, so it was no good to me after that.”
Starc’s new bat came in handy in the World Test Championship final against India earlier this year when he hit his highest Test score in almost four years in the second innings with 41 runs. The bat then played its part in Australia’s second Test Ashes victory at Lord’s as Starc faced 72 balls to heap the pressure on England ahead of the fourth innings.
Starc hit the headlines during that second Test after he thought he had taken a catch when Ben Duckett edged a Cameron Green bouncer. But the decision was controversially overturned as the 33-year-old had allowed the ball to scrape along the floor while he was taking the catch.
Starc will now be hoping to play a key role when the fourth Test gets underway next Wednesday. And ahead of the showdown, the star said: “I said early doors that I wasn‘t going to change the way I approach my cricket to fit in, to try to do something different, I’m going to stick to my strengths and I think I’ve done that this tour.
“I’ve found a good bit of rhythm after the Oval game. The body is feeling good, the rhythm is there. I’m really clear about my role, it hasn’t really changed to what I would normally do for this group in Australia and the way Pat’s [Cummins] used me throughout. I said that from the beginning and I’m sticking to that role.”
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