Ben Stokes against Mitchell Starc. This is always a contest inside a contest to watch out for whenever Australia and England play in any format, whether in bilateral series or in ICC tournaments.
For both Ben Stokes and Mitchell Starc are legends of the game, who have achieved plenty of great stuff for their respective countries; both are fierce competitors who give their all on the field and regularly rise to the occasion for their team to deliver the game-shifting momentum. One is a gun-slinging maverick who has toppled the best of the batters while the other is a once-in-a-lifetime freak who has produced moments of magic at some of the biggest stages in world cricket.
These two have faced each other in different conditions over the past decades in all three formats, and it would be fair to say that Mitchell Starc.
Ben Stokes vs Mitchell Starc stats:
In Test cricket, they have faced off each other in the last four of the last five Ashes series; Ben Stokes had missed the 2017 Ashes due to his involvement in the physical fight outside a bar in Bristol.
In Tests, Stokes averages a mediocre 20.7 against Mitchell Starc, scoring 186 runs in the 295 balls he’s faced from the left-arm Aussie speedster in Test cricket and got dismissed 9 times. Though Stokes has cracked Starc for 26 fours and 3 sixes in the longest format.
Coming to ODIs, Be Stokes’ record against Starc is poor: average of 11.3 with only 34 runs in 50 balls with 3 dismissals to the left-arm seamer, one of those dismissals is iconic – from the 2019 World Cup group-stage game at Lord’s.
In T20Is, Mitchell Starc has bowled to Ben Stokes only 5 balls, of which the southpaw managed merely 2 runs for no dismissal.
Watch: Mitchell Starc has bowled Ben Stokes in style 3 times
Mitchell Starc had rattled Ben Stokes’ timber in sensational fashion thrice in their encounters – in 2015 Ashes in Cardiff, in the 2019 World Cup group game at Lord’s, and 2023 Ashes at The Oval. All three times Starc bowled jaffas to Stokes, who could do little than just hear his stumps’ death-rattle.
Watch these staggering deliveries from Starc to Stokes here:
Mitch Starc only deals in seeds to Ben Stokes 🔥 (2015-23)#Ashes pic.twitter.com/ao0N9O4MWJ
— Josh Conway (@BuzzConway_) July 28, 2023
