Starc’s lack of direction has the critics hovering

TWO tail-end wickets helped turn down the spotlight on misfiring Mitchell Starc, who was again criticised yesterday for poor body language after a lacklustre new-ball effort.

Starc, the nominal spearhead of the Australian pace battery, finished with 3-40 in India’s second innings to help keep the tourists to 323 and his team in the game.

The left-armer’s final spell was his longest in two days as captain Tim Paine encouraged Starc to find the bowling rhythm which looked absent for much of the match.

Starc didn’t bowl for more than two hours on day three and before Australia took the new ball yesterday he had been limited to two fruitless twoover spells.

His inability to close in on the Indians in the first hour of the day moved former quick Mitchell Johnson to suggest Starc didn’t look threatening.

“I just don’t like his body language. He hasn’t given a bit of a glare or puffed his chest out with a good follow through, let the batsman know he’s in the contest, that he’s going to rip the pegs out,” Johnson said on ABC radio.

On Fox Cricket former national selector Mark Waugh said Starc “didn’t look right”, while Shane Warne questioned whether he had done enough work in the lead-up to the match.

Starc played just one Sheffield Shield match, bowling 32 overs, and a single T20 in between the second Test against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in October, and this clash with India.

Starc said his preparation for this Test had been “perfect” and he had been working on his action with bowling coach David Saker to try to find the swing he had lost.

That lack of movement has played out in his Test returns this year. Before he came to Adelaide, Starc had only taken more than two wickets in an innings twice in his previous seven Tests. Starc confirmed he was still working through the tweaks to his action.

“Little things have worked and hopefully the swing that I have got the last couple of weeks hangs around,” he said.