Gillespie backs Mitchell Starc to join Test cricket’s elite 200 wickets club

Sydney: Former Australian Test star Jason Gillespie has predicted rising pacer Mitchell Starc to join Test cricket’s elite 200-wicket club after the left-armer’s impressive form in recent months.

Gillespie joined forces with Starc when the youngster signed as an overseas player with English county Yorkshire, where he is head coach. Gillespie said he had “absolutely no doubt” Starc could one day pass 200 Test wickets, a feat achieved by only 13 Australians in the 125-year history of the game. He currently has 10 wickets from four Tests, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Gillespie with 259 wickets sits sixth on Australia’s Test wicket-takers’ list and formed a lethal new-ball combination with Glenn McGrath in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “He showed glimpses of how good he can be at Yorkshire and since he’s made his Australian debut he’s shown every time he’s gone out there that he’s the real deal. He’ll play a lot of cricket for Australia [and] he can be a serious wicket-taker for a long time,” Gillespie told Fairfax. Starc said his stint with Yorkshire during the winter was the catalyst for his surge in form, which has made him arguably the man of the moment in Australia’s fast-bowling ranks. Gillespie said Starc had benefited greatly from being out of his comfort zone and had responded well to the pressure that comes with being an overseas player on the county scene. ANI