Mitchell Starc has been named Wisden’s Leading Men's Cricketer in the World for 2025. Bharat Sundaresan’s piece on Bumrah originally appeared in the 2026 edition of Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack.
Is Mitchell Starc the Benjamin Button of fast bowling? The older he gets, the fitter he looks, the faster he becomes, and the more fearsome he is. And, in 2025, he was more destructive than ever in an already illustrious career. Starc finished with 55 Test wickets at an average of 17, and an equally remarkable strike-rate of 28. In his 15th year at the top level, all three were career-best annual returns.
And he did it all at the age of 35, when most quicks start to slow down or work on new traits to stay relevant. Instead, Starc doubled down on his inherent strengths: raw pace, left-arm swing and unrelenting intensity. He is amused by the “fountain of youth” references thrown his way but, with trademark self-effacement, he politely disagrees with them.
“I’m not sure I’m Benjamin Button at all, and the slow mornings will probably confirm that,” he says with a chuckle. “Over the years, I’ve always liked having a bit more input into what my prep looks like, and what I feel is important for my body to be ready. And being given the trust to train on my own at the home gym, be a self-sufficient athlete, and turn up ready to go, has been something I’ve enjoyed.”
During a prolific year, Starc became the 11th specialist fast bowler to play 100 Tests, and only the second Australian, after Glenn McGrath. He also went past Wasim Akram’s tally of 414 Test wickets for Pakistan, making him the most successful left-arm seamer of all time. Only two other quicks – Mohammed Siraj and Blessing Muzarabani, both a few years younger – bowled more Test overs in 2025 than his 260.
Ask him what he still enjoys about putting his body through unimaginable discomfort, and Starc replies: “I must be a sucker for pain, and I’m pretty stubborn, so that probably’s why I keep running in. I still love the contest. I still love walking out there with some of my best mates and trying to win games in the Baggy Green.”
Starc had made a relatively quiet start to the year in the unforgiving humidity of Galle. He chipped away for five wickets in the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June, then picked up eight more during the first two Tests of Australia’s tour of the Caribbean.
But it was during the pink-ball match at Sabina Park in mid-July that he really came to life. Starc would finish the year with eight wickets in the first over of an innings, and three of those came as West Indies embarked on a chase of 204 – part of a blistering new-ball burst which brought him the fastest Test five-for from the start of an innings, in just 15 deliveries. He finished with a career-best 6-9 as the West Indians were routed for 27, then improved that analysis in his next innings, with 7-58 on the opening day of the Ashes at Perth. And he followed 3-55 in the second innings with 6-75 at Brisbane: 22 wickets at under nine in four innings.
While he remains an assassin with the new ball, Starc’s greatest blessing has been his versatility. For this, he acknowledges Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, whose assistance he had only intermittently in 2025. “It helps when two of my best mates are two of the world’s best bowlers, and I think we have been benefiting from one another for a long time,” he says. “The wobble seam is something Josh and Pat have used so well over the years, and talking to them about that has added a string to the bow.”
That addition, he believes, has made him an even better operator in the second half of his career, and potent at every stage of a Test match: “It probably means I’m a bit more useful to the attack when I can now bowl in all facets, as opposed to just using swing or air speed, like in the first half of my career.”
Starc takes special joy in talking about how the Australian “old boys” were pretty chuffed with what they had achieved during the Ashes as they sat in “the back corner of the rooms” of the SCG – especially after all the digs at the age of the Australian attack. “I’m grateful for the opportunity I’ve had,” he says. “This group we have right now is so enjoyable to be a part of, and the environment keeps the people excited for more.” The mega tours of India and England await in 2027. At the rate he’s going, there’s no question of Starc slowing down. If anything, he may speed up.
