The Mitchell problem in England goes back a generation.
It started with the ferocity of Mitchell Johnson in 2013, when Peggy Mitchell was still in charge of Albert Square, and continued with the left-arm wizardry of Mitchell Starc.
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In the 2025–26 Ashes series, the seventh of his career, Starc took 26 wickets, upping the pace from the lack of pace of his often more vaunted colleagues.
With four more scalps in the fifth Test in Sydney, his catch would be the best by any in an Ashes series since Johnson 12 years ago.
How “hardening” led to Stark spending many years
Starc's summer – the 35-year-old also outclassed England's top three batsmen – is the peak of a Test career built on durability, wicket-taking skills and a commitment to development.
In the last six weeks, he has overtaken Kurtley Ambrose, Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock and, most importantly, Wasim Akram in the list of all-time leading Test wicket-takers.
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By pushing Wasim, Starc became the most successful left-arm bowler in Test history.
And when he lines up at his home ground for the fifth Test this week, it will be the 27th consecutive Australian Test he has played in – a wider run of four Tests missed in his last 56.
The days when then-Australia coach Tim Nielsen told the 20-year-old Starc to “get tough”, and with expletives at that, are a distant memory.
“It might have hurt him a little bit at the time and that's probably his role – to challenge the players and try to get them to be better than they were in the past or to become stronger mentally or physically,” Nielsen told BBC Sport.
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“That must have been one of the conversations you have with a lot of young fast bowlers, especially when they get into international cricket.
“Probably happened a couple of times and it wasn’t just Mitchell, he said he was in a bit of pain and might need a spell. [of rest].
“It was nothing more than, 'I think it's time to find out how much your body can take before it breaks, rather than stop when it breaks.'
What makes Stark so difficult to face?
Such is the change that Australia coach Andrew McDonald has floated the prospect of Starc, the oldest of the world-class trio of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazelwood, touring England for the 2027 Ashes when he turns 37.
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Ray Lindwall, who played his last Test in 1960, was the last Australian to wear the baggy green after his 37th birthday.
This would give Starc the chance to follow in the footsteps of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Glenn McGrath and Courtney Walsh and become the fifth pace bowler to take 500 Test wickets.
Durability can take you far. To join this club, you have to make threats too.
“The strange thing about him, even though he's so good, is that at the peak of his career you can see what he's trying to achieve,” says former England batter Dawid Malan, who faced Starc on England's last two Ashes tours and has played white-ball cricket regularly.
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“You still have to be able to play, but you can see when he holds his swing seam, see when he tries to swing it.”
There were times in Starc's career when he was criticized for leaking results, something he said he had come to terms with.
This negativity is far outweighed by his wicket-taking ability.
Of the elite bowlers who have scored over 350 runs in Tests, only Dale Steyn of South Africa and Waqar Younis of Pakistan have done so with a better strike rate than Starc.
He can make runs, but the average number of balls he needs to take a wicket is surprisingly low.
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“What I found difficult was that I always felt like I was playing against him,” says Malan.
“I felt like I could see the ball well because he has such a good game, you can see the ball and Australia has good pitches, but one out of every 10 balls he scores an absolute jaffa and you just go backwards.”
“In between that, I wouldn’t say you relax, but you think, ‘I’ve got him here. I'm in.”
“He serves half a volley because he was looking for something, serves a cut ball and then all of a sudden he throws a ball that starts in the middle and takes me off the post.
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“He always has the ball taking the wicket. If you don't respect him every ball, he'll just find a way to get you out.”
A revival based on new tricks
Although he may not touch altitude 99 mph during his second test Currently, Starc's average pace has remained consistently above 87 mph throughout his career.
The ability he possessed from the very beginning continues undiminished.
“He was tall, really tall, and he had really good speed in the air, which stood out to me right away,” Nielsen says.
“He could also return the ball to a right-hander.”
Swinging the ball and hitting it into the toes, pads or net was, like Johnson, Wasim and many other left-backs before him, Starc's main approach for the first two-thirds of his career.
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But after being dropped on the Ashes tour in 2019, Starc added a loose seam to his arsenal by the time he returned to England in 2023.
No one in the world has taken as many of Starc's 118 Test wickets since the start of this 2023 series. Even Indian superstar Jasprit Bumrah, in the prime of his career, is 12 points behind.
The key reason was the swing seam.
“Mitchell Starc just shows that you can teach an old job new tricks,” says former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie.
“He watched a lot of Stuart Broad and James Anderson and talked to them about it.
“For a player aged 34 or 35 to go on and get better and improve is fantastic.”
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The wobbler added even more mystery to Stark's game.
When the ball is thrown with a wobbly seam rather than trying to hit the hoop, some pitches unpredictably lift off the surface after being served. Others will go straight and use the outside edge.
Zak Crawley and Joe Root both fell to Starc's swinging balls in the first hour of the series.
The number of Stark layoffs listed has risen nearly 10% over the past three years.
“The key to the swing seam is to position your fingers and wrist directly behind the ball and release the ball from your middle finger,” says Gillespie.
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“With the swing seam, Mitchell Starc will hold the ball so that the seam is angled towards the gully.
“If you release it at the right time, it will roll down the field and it will give the batter doubt.
“He's worked hard on it because he feels the swing seam going across takes the keeper out and slides into play and makes his right-handed striker even more surprising.”
England's torment at the hands of the Mitchells may last longer than you think.
