Starc has plenty of heat to offer

CONTROL is the bowling buzzword Australia hopes will leads it to a victorious Ashes campaign and that makes Josh Hazlewood next in line for a Test call-up if any changes are made.

But nine wickets in two World Cup games at Lord’s, including four against England and that of Test captain Joe Root in June, could yet bring strike weapon Mitchell Starc into the second Test conversation in the quest for a 2-0 lead.

Air speed is Starc’s key weapon and it was on constant display during his recordbreaking World Cup campaign and again in 15.5 firedup overs in the tour match at Worcester.

Starc sent the stumps of tailender Charlie Morris flying, but was called for a noball. He finished with figures of 2-56, but couldn’t get Morris again, as the tailender knocked out his maiden halfcentury. The figures were however less relevant than the output, and after a return of 3-34 Josh Hazlewood said he felt he bowled the best he had all tour.

Former Test batsmen Callum Ferguson, who is playing for Worcestershire this season, agreed and said Hazlewood “had it right”.

Hazlewood has played just one Test at Lord’s, in 2015, when he said he was “quite inexperienced”. But in just his sixth Test match, Hazlewood took 5-88 from across two innings in that game.

The famously sloping wicket at Lord’s has prompted plenty to call for Starc’s inclusion in Wednesday’s second Test to exploit it.

But Hazlewood said he got used to it “pretty quickly”, a feeling reflected in his figures in that game.

Starc, like Hazlewood, has also played just the one Test there, and took 2-102 in that same match in 2015.

Ferguson, who played his only Test with Starc in an infamous match in Hobart in 2016, said the left-armer was bowling “rockets” at Worcester, but lacked the control of his teammates and would got his line “a little bit wrong”.

Changes for Lord’s are unlikely but Hazlewood, who has hardly missed a Test through anything other than injury since his debut in 2014 before this series, said the squad mentality of the bowling group wasn’t just spin.