“Mitch Starc only cleans up the tail” – Is it true?
If you have been following Mitch Starc and his rise in international cricket, you may have heard a myth that “Mitch Starc only cleans up the tail.”
It is time this myth comes to an end. For that, I have gone through Mitch Starc’s career from his debut in 2011 against New Zealand. And his most recent test against New Zealand.
I summed up the data I found into the Pie-Chart above. He has 85 Top order wickets, 82 middle-order wickets, and 77 tail-end wickets from a total of 244 wickets.
To put that into percentages,
- 34.8% of his wickets are top-order wickets.
- 33.6% of his wickets are middle-order wickets.
- 31.6% of his wickets are tail-end wickets.
Mitch Starc most dismissed batsmen:

In the list of players, he’s most often dismissed, there is only one bowler.
- Dimuth Karunaratne, 8 times in 14 innings.
- Jonny Bairstow, 8 times in 19 innings.
- Murali Vijay, 6 times in 13 innings.
- Sir Alastair Cook, 6 times in 23 innings.
- Kusal Mendis, 5 times in 10 innings.
- Dinesh Chandimal, 5 times in 13 innings.
- Azhar Ali, 5 times in 16 innings.
- Asad Shafiq, 5 times in 16 innings.
- Joe Root, 5 times in 25 innings.
- Stuart Broad, 5 times in 25 innings.
Among all these players everyone is an established batsman except Stuart Broad. Then again Broad has often proved a tough nut to crack and he averages 20 in test cricket with one hundred and 12 fifties. His best being a daddy 169 against Pakistan.
Mitch Starc is also among the 32 players to take a wicket with the first ball of a test match.
Also read: Best current South African All-rounder?
Mitch Starc mode of dismissals

He has a high rate of bowled dismissals which tells us, he’s quite often achieved swing at a high pace which the batsmen were unable to read.
To establish my point further, let’s look at his 5-fers :
Mitch Starc 6/154 vs South Africa at the WACA 2012
Mitch picked 6/154 in his first 5 wicket haul. This came against South Africa at the WACA, the list of batsmen dismissed includes:
- Graeme Smith
- Jacques Kallis
- Robin Peterson
- AB De Villiers
- Dale Steyn
- Morne Morkel
Among his six wickets, De Villiers, Smith and Kallis were established batsmen. Robin Peterson was a more than a capable all-rounder. His only Tail Wickets were Steyn and Morkel.
5/114 vs England at Sophia Gardens 2015
This five-wicket haul included the wickets of
- Ian Bell
- Joe Root
- Ben Stokes
- Moeen Ali
- James Anderson
Out of his five dismissals here, 4 were batsmen in the form of Joe Root, Ian Bell, Ben Stokes, and Moeen Ali. Only one of his dismissals here was a tail-ender.
6/111 vs England at Trent Bridge 2015
Mitch picked 6 two tests later and his scalps this time around were:
- Adam Lyth
- Ian Bell
- Joe Root
- Mark Wood
- Jos Buttler
- Sir Alastair Cook
Among these 6, there are 5 proper batsmen in the form of Root, Lyth, Buttler, Sir Cook and Bell. Yet again, only one of his dismissals was a batsman from the tail.
11/94 vs Sri Lanka at the Galle Stadium in 2016
In 2016 Starc had match figures of 11/94 with a 5 and a 6 wicket haul. The batsmen dismissed were:
- Dimuth Karunaratne – Twice
- Kusal Mendis – Twice
- Kaushal Silva
- Rangana Herath
- Lakshan Sandakan
- Dhananjaya De Silva
- Dilruwan Perera
- Vishwa Fernando
- Dinesh Chandimal
Among his 11 dismissals, 7 were batsmen, 2 bowlers who average close to 20 in Sri Lanka, and only two Tail-enders.
5/63 vs Sri Lanka at the SSC 2016
In this following Innings, Starc picked 5/63 and his scalps were:
- Kaushal Silva
- Dimuth Karunaratne
- Dinesh Chandimal
- Kusal Mendis
- Suranga Lakmal.
Once again in this innings, he has 4 top-order wickets and only a single tail-end wicket in the form of Suranga Lakmal.
5/88 vs England at the Adelaide Oval 2017
In 2017, Starc picked 5/88 against England in the Ashes, his scalps were
- Mark Stoneman
- James Vince
- Craig Overton
- Stuart Broad
- Jonny Bairstow
Once again, we see a familiar pattern as to Starc getting 4 top-order wickets and one tail end wicket in Stuart Broad.
Conclusion:
These statements are proof of the fact that Starc isn’t a tail cleaner. People have seen his ability to quickly clean up a tail and classified him as a tail cleaner while close to 70% of his dismissals are top-order batsmen. Hence I can definitely say, No, Starc doesn’t only take tail-end wickets. Instead, he is most prolific against Top-order batsmen.
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