• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Starc, chameera, amir, rabada or Joseph

cnerd123

likes this
Yeah a bloke who is six foot six bowls up to 160 kmph and swings it late does not belong with others. If we are talking about potential ceilings Starc is so far ahead of everyone
This is interesting.

I think I still perceive Starc as being a bit of a one trick pony, albeit a pony who's one trick is to produce a 8 foot tall fire breathing dragon out of a top hat. He doesn't have many tools, but the ones he does have, as you've described, are ****ing frightening and likely to demolish most batting lineups in the world.

But with Amir he just has so many more tools. He seams it and swings it both ways, old ball or new. He's accurate. He has pace. He has angles. He has control over that pace and those angles. And he's so smart (with ball in hand).

I want to call Amir a better bowler because he's just so much more well rounded, but Starc produces more unplayable deliveries than any bowler I can recall, apart from his namesake Johnson.

Can't really decide whom I rate more.
 

Jord

U19 Vice-Captain
The idea that Starc has a fluid action is a bit funny considering he basically jogs to the crease before loading everything into the last few strides and slinging it down there. It's not exactly a Lillee approach to the crease.

I think he'll have massive ongoing issues with injuries in the longer format.
 

Compton

International Debutant
The idea that Starc has a fluid action is a bit funny considering he basically jogs to the crease before loading everything into the last few strides and slinging it down there. It's not exactly a Lillee approach to the crease.

I think he'll have massive ongoing issues with injuries in the longer format.
I'm really not sure what you're on about, his last few strides are remarkably similar to his first few strides. There's very little change to his movement throughout, and his action is very fluid. In fact, if you could only see Starc and not the crease, it's not all that clear when he's actually in his last few strides and preparing to bowl the delivery.

 

Jord

U19 Vice-Captain
He has the exact same bowling action as an injury prone Mitchell Johnson and you're arguing with me. :laugh:
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
The idea that Starc has a fluid action is a bit funny considering he basically jogs to the crease before loading everything into the last few strides and slinging it down there. It's not exactly a Lillee approach to the crease.

I think he'll have massive ongoing issues with injuries in the longer format.
You really don't think this action is fluid? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tksy7Y4nE4U

I think how relaxed an action looks is a pretty poor indicator of propensity for injury, but it's an amazingly smooth action for someone with his pace. Lee, Akhtar, Johnson etc had much jerkier actions.

edit: Compton's post is a much better illustration of this than mine.
 
Last edited:

Jord

U19 Vice-Captain
We need Ian Pont. Ponty.

The problem in Starc's action is the same as Johnson's, he's not quite side on, he's not quite front on, His explosion through the crease means he's twisting his body while landing his feet, which puts even more strain on his back, feet and knees as it would if he was purely side on, or purely front on.

Johnson went through countless stress fractures, it's a bad biomechanical action. It's fast because it's ultimately taking pieces of javelin throwing, almost with baseball pitching, getting half side on, planting a locked leg and slinging the arm across your body. I guarantee he'll spend good chunks of his time injured.
 

Gob

International Coach
We need Ian Pont. Ponty.

The problem in Starc's action is the same as Johnson's, he's not quite side on, he's not quite front on, His explosion through the crease means he's twisting his body while landing his feet, which puts even more strain on his back, feet and knees as it would if he was purely side on, or purely front on.

Johnson went through countless stress fractures, it's a bad biomechanical action. It's fast because it's ultimately taking pieces of javelin throwing, almost with baseball pitching, getting half side on, planting a locked leg and slinging the arm across your body. I guarantee he'll spend good chunks of his time injured.
This means now he'll go on to have an uninterrupted 50 match run
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
We need Ian Pont. Ponty.

The problem in Starc's action is the same as Johnson's, he's not quite side on, he's not quite front on, His explosion through the crease means he's twisting his body while landing his feet, which puts even more strain on his back, feet and knees as it would if he was purely side on, or purely front on.

Johnson went through countless stress fractures, it's a bad biomechanical action. It's fast because it's ultimately taking pieces of javelin throwing, almost with baseball pitching, getting half side on, planting a locked leg and slinging the arm across your body. I guarantee he'll spend good chunks of his time injured.
I don't necessarily disagree that it's an action more prone to injuries than a classical action, but it should be said that all bowlers have injuries. I wouldn't say Johnson was injured much more than most other bowlers, particularly not bowlers who were above 140kph their whole career.

IMO, rather than changing natural actions, the approach should be to strengthen the muscles in question and make sure no imbalances in counter-muscles occur (e.g. hamstrings are as developed as quads, to use the classic example). Strengthen the areas as much as you can and then deal with it IMO.
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah Johnson wasn't injury prone like Shane Bond or anything. More comparable to someone like Brett Lee. He had some stress fracture issues when he was young like most quicks, but he took 600ish international wickets despite not always being a guaranteed selection for his team. He had his fair share of injuries but I don't think it was a career crippled by them. Realistically I don't think many bowlers who bowl in the 150kph range are going to have long, injury free careers. I think missing a good portion of your early 20s through consistent injuries is far more common than the alternative, unfortunately.
 

cnerd123

likes this
You guys are correct, but shame on you for falling to Jord's tricks. No one said Starc's action was injury prone. Jord called it 'Jerky' as well as being prone to injury. OS and others disagreed on the jerky part, but Jord conflicted that and try to laugh off people calling it injury propf when no one ever said that. But he got you all to jump in and make posts defending Starc's potential injury-proneness.

For shame guys. For shame.
 

Dan

Hall of Fame Member
Intriguingly, Starc's been the least injury-prone of all young Aussie quicks, and he's bowled the most of any of them iirc.
 

Black_Warrior

Cricketer Of The Year
Irrespective of whether he is injury prone or not, I wouldn't really consider that in a topic like this. I would focus more on the what skills these bowlers have and who has demonstrated growth and improvement and picked up new skills.
 

Dan

Hall of Fame Member
I think Chameera is the most fun. And the only one with a Pokemon-based nickname. So he has to win.
 

54321

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
On the topic of Rabada, does anyone else think he and Kyle Abbott will have a great bowling partnership together?
Rabada and Abbott, Abbott and Rabada. Has a nice ring to it
 

Top