Mitchell Starc makes critics eat humble pie with IPL-winning spells when it mattered

Mitchell Starc was sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 24.75 crore in the IPL 2024 auction.

A whopping Rs 24.75 crore. This was the sort of money that has never been spent on a single player anywhere in cricket. And it went to a pacer in a format that is dominated by ball-hitting strikers and to a bowler who was returning to the Indian Premier League after a gap of nine years.

What followed was cynical comments that derided the Aussies pacer who honestly didn’t set the price tag for himself.

“Over the top, to be absolutely frank. I don’t think anybody is worth that kind of money. If Starc can make an impact and win maybe four out of the 14 matches that he plays, then you can say money’s worth. Then if he makes contributions in the other games - absolutely fantastic,” India legend Sunil Gavaskar had said .

“Mitchell Starc - 24.75 crore rupees. Pat Cummins - 20.50 crore rupees. Jasprit Bumrah is 12 crores, MS Dhoni is also 12 crores, Virat Kohli - 17 (15) crores, and Rohit Sharma is also 16 crores. Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Sam Curran, Cameron Green - all of them are more expensive than them. Is this what is called kalyug?” former opener Aakash Chopra questioned on his YouTube channel.

Maybe all of them were going by his IPL record. In 27 IPL matches before the 2024 season, Starc had taken 34 wickets at 20.38 with an economy rate of 7.17.

But probably they forgot that a lot has changed since 2015. Starc is now a two-time ODI World Cup winner, 2021 T20 World Champion, and a winner of the World Test Championship mace.

And in most of those games, he played a match-winning role.

Remember Starc removing the inspirational Brendon McCullum in the first over of the 2015 ODI World Cup final and then removing Luke Ronchi for a duck as Australia won by seven wickets?

Or Starc getting better of Shubman Gill in the 2023 ODI World Cup final in the powerplay before dismissing India’s top-scorer KL Rahul?

Or Starc dismissing India openers Rohit Sharma and Gill early on in India’s first innings in the WTC 2021-23 final?

He has constantly been the big player at the biggest of stages in world cricket and KKR were paying for that ability to be a match-winner in a big match and the hunger to win trophies. Maybe if we applied some memory and cricketing logic, his criticism probably wouldn’t have been as stinging as it was at the start.

Nonetheless, to be fair, he had a poor start to the league.

The left-arm quick gave away 53 and 47 runs in his first two matches without any wicket to show as pressure mounted in the media. In the first eight matches, he took just seven wickets while giving away runs at an economy of over 11. But what we forgot was that five of those matches were played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. A venue that offered no swing or grip and welcomed batters with open arms.

A total of 2,589 runs were scored in seven matches in Kolkata as the first half of IPL witnessed batting records being rewritten . But as soon as the pitches started to get tired and the ball started to grip and swing, Starc became the behemoth that rises when it matters the most.

In his last five bowling innings, Starc took to 10 wickets.

The last two of those innings were in Qualifier 1 and the final — matches in which he wreaked havoc in the powerplay to fire KKR to easy wins and help them win the coveted IPL trophy, ending their agonising 10-year long wait.

In Qualifier 1, he sent back Travis Head, Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed in the powerplay, effectively ending Sunrisers Hyderabad’s challenge in the first six overs as they only scored 159 and lost by eight wickets.

Starc sets the tone for Qualifier 1 with a ripper! 🔥#IPLonJioCinema #TATAIPL #KKRvSRH #TATAIPLPlayoffs #IPLinBengali pic.twitter.com/3AJG5BvZwT

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 21, 2024

In the final, Starc dismissed Abhishek Sharma in the very first over with what can easily be called the ball of the tournament. He struck again in the powerplay with Rahul Tripathi’s wicket as SRH failed to recover from the mayhem and succumbed to another eight-wicket defeat after being bowled out for 113 — the lowest team for an IPL final .

𝐔𝐍𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 ft. Starc ⚡#KKRvSRH #TATAIPL #IPLonJioCinema #IPLFinalonJioCinema #IPLFinal pic.twitter.com/QzpNlc0qFi

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 26, 2024

In both matches, Starc was declared the Player of the Match and now walks away from India with an IPL title win to his name, proving once again that there hardly is a player who loves the big occasion so deeply as he does and those who questioned his price tag were nothing but being ignorant.