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It has taken Mitchell Starc only about a decade to come round to the idea of pink-ball Test cricket. In the end, it was the sheer weight of his own numbers that persuaded him he had little choice.
Starc has already stamped his mark on these Ashes, taking seven for 58 in England’s first innings during the series opener at Perth and 10 for 113 in all.
Now, with Australia eyeing a 2-0 lead from which it would be hard to imagine them relinquishing the urn, he is resuming a relationship that is as much love-hate as it is day-night.
On the one hand, Starc admits he is old-school. Before he sent down Test cricket’s first pink-ball delivery, to New Zealand’s Martin Guptill at Adelaide in November 2015, he sounded distinctly grumpy: ‘It’s definitely not a red ball.’
On the other, the format has brought him untold statistical riches: 81 wickets, which is 38 more than the next man, and at an average of 17. In July, he used the pink Dukes to skittle West Indies for 27 in Jamaica, returning figures of six for nine. Afterwards, his attitude towards an experiment that has taken hold in Australia but nowhere else seemed to be thawing.
‘I’ve softened my stance on it,’ he said. ‘I’ve said it before: it’s one to be careful of. You don’t want to overdo what it is. I think there’s a spot for it. I’m a traditionalist, so I still very much love the red-ball game, but I’ve grown to see a place for it in the calendar.’
Mitchell Starc is the standard bearer with a pink ball - his 81 wickets in Tests are 38 more than anyone else
Starc took 10 wickets across two pink-ball Tests in England's last visit Down Under, in 2021-22
Australia’s ever-developing rapport with floodlit Test cricket has been largely based on its successful application in Adelaide, where they have won eight out of eight and the thin coating of grass allows the pink Kookaburra to retain its sheen and hardness.
At Brisbane, where the second Test starts on Thursday, they have played three day/night matches, beating Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but losing to West Indies in January 2024, when Guyanese fast bowler Shamar Joseph sprinted round the Gabba outfield and was mobbed by team-mates after sealing an eight-run win.
The pitch is firmer here than in Adelaide, causing concerns that the ball will go softer more quickly – one of Starc’s long-held bugbears. But the pink ball offers compensations, and he has ruthlessly exploited them.
One is the black stitching, which according to former England captain Alastair Cook and former England bowler Stuart Broad this week can be hard to pick up if the floodlights come on and distract the batsmen by shining off the pink leather. The red ball, by contrast, has a more visible white seam.
‘At least you have a chance with the red ball,’ wrote Cook in The Sunday Times. ‘If it’s a pink one under lights, it’s nigh-on impossible to pick up the seam and decide with confidence which way the ball might move. Anyone who can make the ball swing, such as Starc… is especially dangerous.’
Broad, who took 23 pink-ball wickets at 26 in seven Tests, backed up his former captain on his For The Love of Cricket podcast: 'You just can't pick it up as well. With a red ball, white seam, you might see Mitchell Starc's inswinger coming back towards the stump or see the seam scrambling around.
'But if the lights are reflecting off that pink ball, it's like a big planet coming towards you. That means when it nips across, you're just judging that from when it moves off the surface, and when it swings back at you, you're having to react to the movement of the ball. But (with Starc) it's at such good pace.'
In 27 Test innings with the pink ball, Starc has taken six wickets three times, five wickets twice, four wickets six times, and three wickets five times.
In July, Starc tore through West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica with six for nine in just 7.3 overs - including his 400th Test wicket
Stuart Broad is bowled by Starc under the lights at Hobart in the fifth Test of the 2021-22 Ashes
Only twice has he failed to strike, and on one of those occasions his figures were 6-3-7-0, against India. In all, a fifth of his 412 Test wickets have been with pink ball, not red. He could only stay angry with it for so long.
The danger he poses has been exacerbated by his discovery of the wobble-seam delivery, which keeps batsmen guessing. Throw in his natural swing, and it is hardly controversial to suggest he is untouchable in the day/night format.
‘I think the stats would probably say that,’ said Marnus Labuschagne, Australia’s No 3. ‘It’s high pace, it’s late swing, and you combine them in the right conditions at the right time…
‘The pink ball swings later and more inconsistently, which makes it harder to line up. If you take Jimmy Anderson, he bowled perfect outswing with the red ball that swings every ball. But with the pink ball, some slide in, some go. It changes depending on the conditions.
‘A combination of Starc being a left-hander, swinging it at high pace, and swinging it late – that’s probably what makes him so dangerous.’
But Labuschagne himself is proof that batsmen can thrive under lights: 15 innings in day/night Tests have brought him four hundreds, four fifties and an average of 63. No one has more than his 958 runs in pink-ball Tests. Then again, he’s not had to face Starc.
Three wickets at the Gabba, and Starc will become the most-decorated left-arm quick in Test history, surpassing Wasim Akram’s haul of 414 wickets for Pakistan. Among Australian seamers, only Glenn McGrath lies ahead.
England need little reminding of his qualities, though fast bowler Brydon Carse – one of four members of the likely starting XI never to have played a pink-ball Test – admitted Starc had been a topic of discussion after his heroics at Perth.
Marnus Labuschagne has a record 958 Test runs against the pink ball, averaging 63 with four hundreds
‘No matter what colour ball – pink, white or red – he’s a high-quality bowler'
‘No matter what colour ball – pink, white or red – he’s a high-quality bowler,’ said Carse. ‘He offers different challenges for different players, and a few of the guys on an individual basis have probably had conversations about how they will conquer that challenge.’
The most likely to have had those conversations are Zak Crawley, Joe Root and Ben Stokes, who were dismissed twice each by Starc for a grand total of 16 runs in Perth as he imposed himself on England’s batting line-up like no left-hander since Mitchell Johnson out here 12 years ago.
England will be hoping the comparison stops there. They also know that, if the stars align in Brisbane, Starc may render even the most forensic analysis redundant.
