Ricky Ponting feels that Yashasvi Jaiswal’s “bowling too slow” comment to Mitchell Starc in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth is likely to have acted as the motivating factor behind the left-arm speedster’s career-best spell in the pink-ball Test at the Adelaide Oval.
Starc had got Jaiswal out for an eight-ball duck in the first innings of the Perth Test but the southpaw came back strongly in the second innings and scored 161. For the unversed, Jaiswal had taken a jibe at Starc with a “bowling too slow” remark during the course of his second innings.
Starc was not at his very best in the second innings in Perth but dished out a cracking spell of fast bowling in the first innings of the Adelaide Test match and claimed figures of 6/48, including Jaiswal’s wicket on the very first ball of the match.
“He’s actually a pretty level-headed guy, Mitchell Starc. He doesn’t get flustered too much, even you see when he’s bowling now,” Ponting said on the ICC Review.
“And if one of the batters does happen to say something, he generally responds with a little smile on his face.
“But I think that smile on his face might be just a bit of a cover for the fire that’s burning inside. Look, he bowled beautifully in Adelaide didn’t he.”
The former Australia captain lauded Starc, Pat Cummins and Travis Head for their impressive performances in Adelaide which helped the hosts claw their way back in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
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“I said in the lead-up that Australia’s senior players had to really stand up and change what had happened in Perth,” Ponting added.
“When they lost the toss, and Australia were bowling, it was up to Cummins and Starc to set the tone from the very start of that game.
“Starc takes a wicket first ball, happens to beat Jaiswal who had made 160 in the last innings he played against Australia. And that really set the tone for the whole Test match. I thought Starc was outstanding. Career-best figures 6/48 in the first innings and then the captain (Cummins) comes into his own in the second innings and leads the way with the ball in the second innings. So lots of really good signs.
“That’s the sort of bounce-back that you would expect from the Australian team. Their senior players standing up and Travis doing what he did. That’s what they needed to do. So they got the job done and now they’ve got to do it again next week in Brisbane.”
