New Delhi: Today is a very special day for Australian star pace bowler Mitchell Starc as the veteran was awarded the Allan Border Award for the very first time in his international career. As Starc graciously accepted the award during the ceremony organized by Cricket Australia, he recalled the toughest phase of his career.
Starc revealed that at one point during his career, he had made up his mind to leave the game. While battling his tough phase, he was not able to take wickets as per the expectations.
“The last two years, as life is at the moment, there’s a lot of ups and downs. You find ways to adapt and what not, but it’s a reflection of the support base I have had throughout those two years as well. There have certainly been times when I haven’t played my best cricket or certainly times over those two years where I didn’t want to play any cricket. I’m very thankful for my support networks and in particular Alyssa, to play cricket at the highest level [and] be there to support me as well, I can’t thank her enough for that,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Starc as saying.
“It goes back to the work you do behind the scenes and the work you put in with strength and conditioning and time spent with physios and what not. A huge thanks to the support staff, particularly [Australian Men’s] physio David Beakley to keep me on the park for five Test matches and keep me on the park for five and let me play five,” he added.
Starc played a key role in Australia’s 4-0 win over England in the five-match Ashes series. He performed brilliantly throughout the series, taking 19 wickets in five matches. Across all formats, Starc bagged a combined 43 wickets at an average of 24.4 in the last one year.
He also scored 241 runs across all formats at an average of 26.8 to sit inside Australia’s top 10 run-scorers over the past 12 months.
“I went through periods years ago where seeing any criticism or different opinions was almost a bit of a spur for me to stick it up to them, but a couple of years ago I made that decision to get away from it all. Think that’s helped me stay really level between some really good stuff and not so good stuff and not let it affect me at all,” Starc said.
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