Mitchell Starc named Wisden Leading Cricketer of the Year as England Bazball slammed

Mitchell Starc has a deserved reputation as a strike bowler with a propensity to rattle top-order batters with his ferocity.

But learning a trick or two from his younger teammates has been key to the champion’s longevity and success, which culminated in the veteran being named Wisden’s Leading Male Cricketer in the World for his dazzling deeds in 2025.

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In a year where the New South Welshman became just the second Australian fast bowler to reach 100 Tests while also overtaking Wasim Akram to become the leading left-armed pace Test wicket taker, his consistency has become a virtue.

That saw him take 55 wickets at an average of 17, with a strike-rate of 28, in 11 Tests while also producing important innings including a 77 against England at the Gabba and an unbeaten 58 against South Africa in the World Test Championship Final.

The 36-year-old starts spells with the speed of Usain Bolt, but it is his improved ability to reproduce and remain effective throughout innings that has catapulted him to a position among the greats. And it stems from being open to change.

Starc led the Australian attack for extended periods in the injury-enforced absence of fellow champions Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins in 2025, but said learning from their use of “wobble seam” had proven critical to his ability to keep performing.

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“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,” Starc told Wisden in a profile celebrating the honour.

“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. 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, who snared 31 wickets during the Ashes, will turn 37 in the midst of a gruelling stretch of Test cricket for Australia beginning with a two Test series against Bangladesh to be played in Darwin and Mackay in August.

Australia will travel to South Africa in October for three Tests, host New Zealand in a four Test Chappell-Hadlee Tour over summer and then head to India for a five Test series from late January to early March.

The Aussies then host England in a 150th Anniversary Test special at the MCG in mid-March and will hope to feature in the World Test Championship Final for the third cycle in succession preceding the Ashes beginning in late June, 2027.

Starc’s presence is considered critical to the Aussies ability to navigate the exacting challenges ahead, but the champion said he was a “sucker for pain” and loved nothing more than walking on to a ground wearing the ‘Baggy Green’ cap with his mates.

Starc aside, the Wisden awards were dominated by Indian cricketers. The ability of stars including Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant to cash in on toothless England decks last northern summer carried weight with the “bible of cricket”.

Gill struggled in Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2024-25 after injuring himself in the infancy of the tour, but was prolific with four centuries in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, including a double of 269 and 161 at Edgbaston.

Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj, whose five-wicket haul at The Oval in the final Test of a gripping series that finished tied at 2-all were named among the five Cricketers of the Year alongside Nottinghamshire skipper Haseeb Hameed.

The Leading Cricketer of the Year in the women’s category was clinched by Indian star Deepti Sharma, while Abishek Sharma was announced as the T20 Cricketer of the Year.

When announcing the honours, Wisden’s editor Lawrence Booth delivered a stinging rebuke of the cricket England produced during the Ashes and was also perturbed by the increasing influence India has in The Hundred domestic competition.

He labelled the woeful Ashes campaign of England, which were beaten 4-1, as “feckless, reckless and legless”.

“In the game’s long history, it is hard to think of a privilege so carelessly squandered, a chance so blithely spurned,” he wrote.

“England were feckless, reckless and legless. These were the wing-and-a-prayer Ashes and England got what they deserved. What a waste. What a shame.”

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