BRISBANE:&nbsp;Australia captain Pat Cummins said he will be &quot;good to go&quot; for the third Ashes Test after missing the first two with a back injury, in more bad news for struggling England. The 32-year-old pace spearhead has not played since picking up the issue against the West Indies mid-year. Selectors flirted with including him for the second Test at Brisbane, but erred on the side of caution. &ldquo;First of all, yeah, I should be right for Adelaide,&rdquo; Cummins said on Fox Sports, referring to the third Test that starts on December 17. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have one more bowl (on Sunday), and then we&#39;ll go to Adelaide and have another bowl there. &lsquo;Good to go&rsquo;&ldquo;So, barring any hiccups, I&#39;ll be good to go. Body feels great.&rdquo; Asked how close he was to playing in Brisbane, Cummins said: &ldquo;Relatively close, really. &ldquo;We thought it didn&#39;t feel like the right Test match to take that risk, so kick it down the road for a week.&rdquo; Australia have also been without fellow quick Josh Hazlewood for the first two Tests and the news from him was less encouraging. Achilles sorenessHe was back bowling after tweaking a hamstring six days before the opening Test in Perth, but reported Achilles soreness this week. Cricket Australia told local media it was a &ldquo;low-grade&rdquo; issue, but it casts further doubt over whether he will play any part in the five-Test series. In Cummins and Hazlewood&rsquo;s absence, Mitchell Starc has led the attack, taking 10 wickets in Australia&#39;s crushing eight-wicket win at Perth and another six in England&#39;s first innings at Brisbane. He has been ably supported by Scott Boland, Brendan Doggett, and Michael Neser.

Cricket

The 32-year-old pace spearhead has not played since picking up the issue against the West Indies mid-year; selectors flirted with including him for the second Test at Brisbane, but erred on the side of caution.

Ashes: Australia skipper Cummins ‘good to go’ for Adelaide Test

KARACHI:&nbsp;Legendary Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram believes even more is to come from Australia&#39;s &ldquo;incredible&rdquo; veteran Ashes wrecking ball Mitchell Starc. Akram was reacting to <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/wasims-still-better-says-starc-after-leftarm-wicket-landmark" style="color:#0073e6;">Starc surpassing his tally</a> of 414 wickets during the Brisbane Test against England on Thursday, becoming the leading left-arm pace bowler of all time. &ldquo;Congratulations to Starc on passing my tally of wickets,&rdquo; Akram told AFP, saying that the 35-year-old&rsquo;s passion and commitment helped set him apart. &lsquo;One of the best&rsquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Starc has shown a great amount of dedication and focus in these times of too much cricket, having T20 leagues with big money coming your way. &ldquo;He did play T20 leagues but then decided to play more Tests and left the shorter format because he wanted to be remembered as one of the best in the world in the history of the game. &ldquo;Ten years down the line, if anyone decides to have an all-time Test team, then Starc will&nbsp;be named in that team for sure.&rdquo; &lsquo;Far better bowler&rsquo;&nbsp;Despite trumping Akram, Starc described the Pakistan great as the &ldquo;pinnacle&rdquo;. &ldquo;Wasim&#39;s still a far better bowler than I am,&rdquo; Starc said on Thursday. Akram dismissed the debate over who is the greatest. &ldquo;It is difficult to compare both of us because we are from different eras,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;People say that I played on placid tracks and he played on bouncy Aussie tracks, so that was different. &lsquo;Go on and on&rsquo;&ldquo;But nowadays batters have a different mindset and they play aggressive shots even on good balls, so that makes wicket-taking a more difficult art.&rdquo; Akram said he believed Starc&rsquo;s passion could take him further. &ldquo;He is 35 and his pace is still there and passion remains at its peak. He has been incredible as a fast bowler and is enjoying fast bowling, so can go on and on.&rdquo;

Says ‘congratulations to Starc on passing my tally of wickets’, adding, ‘Starc has shown a great amount of dedication and focus in these times of too much cricket, having T20 leagues with big money coming your way.’

Pakistan legend Akram hails ‘incredible’ Starc after Ashes heroics

BRISBANE, Australia: Australia pace bowler Mitchell Starc said Thursday he could not be compared with Wasim Akram after he surpassed the Pakistani great as the leading left-arm pace bowler in Test history. Starc&#39;s six-wicket haul on day one of the second Ashes Test in Brisbane gave him 418 Test wickets, four more than Akram. &quot;Wasim&#39;s still a far better bowler than I am,&quot; said Starc. &quot;So as far as I&#39;m concerned, he&#39;s still the pinnacle of left-armers and certainly he&#39;s right up there with the best bowlers to ever play the game. &quot;It&#39;s nice to be spoken of up around that, but I&#39;ll just try to keep churning a few out.&quot; Starc led the Australian attack in the day-night match at the Gabba in the absence of his usual strike partners Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, who are injured, and spinner Nathan Lyon, who was dropped. &quot;I don&#39;t think I&#39;ve ever played in an attack without one of the three of them playing,&quot; Starc said. &quot;So it&#39;s a little bit different in that regard.&quot; The 35-year-old, who has taken 16 wickets in the series, was the only Australian bowler to trouble the English batsmen consistently on Thursday. Starc went past Akram&#39;s mark when he bagged England&#39;s Harry Brook, caught at slip, for his 415th wicket and third of the innings. Akram, widely recognised as the greatest left-arm bowler the sport has seen, played 104 Tests for his 414 wickets. Starc, who made his debut at the Gabba 14 years ago, was playing his 102nd Test and shows no sign of slowing down. He took a career-best 7-58 in the first innings of the opening Ashes Test at Perth. Starc is now 15th on the all-time wicket-taker list after moving above Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh&#39;s total of 417. He now has South Africa&#39;s Shaun Pollock (421) in his sights and New Zealand&#39;s Richard Hadlee (431). He needs just 16 more wickets to go past the most prolific left-arm bowler of all-time -- Sri Lanka spinner Rangana Herath, who claimed 433 wickets.

Mitchell Starc surpassed Wasim Akram as Test cricket’s leading left-arm pacer with 418 wickets, modestly praises Akram, while spearheading an injury-hit Australian attack.

Articles tagged with "Mitchell Starc"

Ashes: Australia skipper Cummins ‘good to go’ for Adelaide Test

Pakistan legend Akram hails ‘incredible’ Starc after Ashes heroics

'Wasim's still better' says Starc after left-arm wicket landmark

Ashes: Australia skipper Cummins ‘good to go’ for Adelaide Test