Starc in the shadow

At the start of each fielding session, the four Australian specialist bowlers let the rest of the team enter the field ahead of them before getting together for a little snuggle and a huddle. It's like their way of egging and motivating each other on to get out there and get the job done. The special ops unit at the start of their next mission if you may. 

Old Trafford was the first time in over 8 months and for the first time in this Ashes series that Australia had the old guard back together though. Mitchell Starc was finally back to reunite with Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, that England-humbling attack of 2017-18. And with the hosts being reduced to 200-5, still 98 adrift of saving the follow-on, by the end of the third day's play, the scoreboard might read like a throwback to that very successful home summer. But the scenes on the field as the umpires called for a premature end owing to bad light didn't quite match up. For while Cummins and Hazlewood stood patting each other on the back near the bowler's end, Starc cut a forlorn figure in the background, away at fine-leg all by himself. Cummins did then spot Starc in the distance and run up to him to give him a high-five and share a joke. 

You weren't surprised though that the left-armer had been left out, even if only briefly, from the mutual-adulation. It was purely due to the efforts of the two right-armers, with a little help from Lyon, after all that Australia had found themselves in a position where they could force a result. Starc if anything had stood out as a liability for most parts of the day. To the extent that Tim Paine didn't turn to him even once during the lengthy final session that lasted nearly 140 minutes, where Cummins bowled nearly non-stop for 10 overs and Hazlewood bowled 7 on the trot to get his three wickets. And it was Cummins who was taking his cap and jumper off to come back on again just before the players left the field. 

Starc had bowled the last of his two spells in the middle part of the equally lengthy post-lunch session - his last being the 41st over of England's innings. His figures in that spell read 5-1-28-0, and they came at a time Joe Root and Rory Burns were settled but not scoring at any great rate. By the time he was taken off, the two English top-order batsmen and as a result the English innings had the momentum it needed to get the Aussies off the fifth gear. Root had gone from 19 off 60 to 41 off 88, while Burns looked set for another ton. In that 40-minute period or so, it had come to bear why Australia had been so apprehensive in the first place to give Starc a Test this series. 

Control and discipline are the two virtues that the Australians have spoken off incessantly as being the pillars of their strategy to win their first series in England for 18 years since they landed here. And before the fourth Test, the seamers had collectively gone at an economy rate of 2.94. Then on came Starc. 

For most parts of Friday (September 6), the reunion of the original core group didn't quite feel like we were back in Australia for the last Ashes. It was more like we were back in Sydney at the start of 2019 and India and Cheteshwar Pujara were piling on the runs. Cummins and, to a smaller extent, Hazlewood had been as incisive and as disciplined as they were during their respective bursts in Manchester during that series. The problem was Starc. And he went at 34.53 for his 13 wickets and at an economy of 3.23. Every time his pace partners would create some sort of pressure on the Indians, Starc would open the door, invariably. Much like he did at Old Trafford on Friday in the second spell. And like he had to then, captain Tim Paine was on his tail at the end of each over, to put an arm around his fast bowler's shoulder and give him a pat on the bum - that very Aussie tradition of encouraging a fellow bloke. 

"What he is, when he's at his best he's brilliant, when he's not, he's not so much. But again he's not running out trying to spray the ball everywhere," is how Paine had described him after that Sydney Test. And here with Australia right on top having put on a big total on the board, Starc was "not so" brilliant and did "spray the ball" quite a bit allowing Root and Burns to break free. 

There's been a lot of talk from the Aussie camp about how they've six very talented and very fit fast bowlers together at the same time. It's true as well. But there had always been question marks about the scenario in which Starc would get a chance to come in. 

Australia started with Cummins, Hazlewood and Peter Siddle in Birmingham. Starc was unleashed against the hapless Worcester batsmen in the first tour match, but he ended up being expensive in his early spell with teenage debutant Jack Haynes hitting him for a bunch of boundaries. He then struggled to get rid of the tail, what has been built up as his major go-to skill, there. He did look a lot more lethal against the second-string Derbyshire line-up last week, and lived up to the moniker, "Mop", which according to Paine is what his teammates refer to him as. It'd be surprising though if Australia picked Starc for the crucial fourth Test purely based on that performance, considering the quality of the opposition there. But Paine did repeatedly talk up the hard work Starc had been putting in to get his lengths right for English conditions, something he'd struggled to do on previous tours. You'd think then that the decision to give him a go was based on the belief that he'd finally got it right. Paine had made it clear at the start of the series though that at that stage he looked at Starc and James Pattinson playing a similar role, of being the enforcers. Considering Pattinson went at an economy rate of 2.56 in the two Tests he played, it's safe to assume that he isn't clubbed together with Starc anymore. 

One of the more entertaining aspects of the day was how the English crowd cheered every time the ball would be tossed back at Lyon while he was bowling. And the off-spinner, who played along with great spirit, only dropped the ball once. It might be early to say that Starc has dropped the ball in this Test. But he certainly didn't do enough with it to help his colleagues out. He might still run in and blow away the English tail and win Australia the Ashes. But you wouldn't think so on the basis of how he went on Friday. But his colleagues anyway haven't given up on him yet. And Hazlewood even predicted, "Big things for Starcy" at the end of the day. 

"He's coming back into the team after a little break and I'm sure he'll go out tomorrow and the next day and show his class. The wickets can really fall quickly when he's bowling. It doesn't really matter what the wicket [is doing]... if it gets slower out there, he sort of comes into the game more I feel," he said. 

We know they'll be back giving each other a cuddle before walking out on Saturday morning. It remains to be seen whether Starc can back them up and Hazlewood's claims.