Mitchell Starc opens up a rough phase in his career, wanted to stop playing game.
Australian senior paceman Mitchell Starc, after winning his maiden Allan Border medal following a roaring performance in the recently concluded Ashes, opened up on the rough phase in his cricketing career. The speedster, at times, thought of giving up playing the game due to poor form.
Starc disclosed that he wanted to stop playing the game of cricket in the past two years due to a thin phase in his career. However, the seamer kept his cricket running despite a gloomy show against India in the home test series.
The Aussie pacer was recently crowned with the Allen Border medal, the highest honour from Cricket Australia, for his sublime bowling performance against England in the recently held Ashes, which Australia won by 4-0.
“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,” told the pacer as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
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Despite a low phase, Starc kept playing the highest level cricket. He opened up that his support pillars stuck by him and kept him motivated. The pacer specially mentioned his wife, Alyssa Healy, who is also a professional cricketer for Australia, for being his biggest support throughout the pale phase.
“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,” he added.
“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 further added.
Starc was heavily criticised for his below-par performance against India in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. The pacer could only manage to pick 11 wickets at an average of 40.72. Moreover, his outing in the T20 World Cup 2021 also remained average.
However, Mitchell Starc did all the talking with his bowling and gave a befitting reply to his critics. He thrived in the Ashes 2021-22, where he scalped 19 wickets at an average of 25.37.
“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 further said.