Mitchell Starc ready to take over from Mitchell Johnson, says Craig McDermott

Starc ready to lead the Aussie attack

Mitchell Johnson might have retired, but Australia’s fast bowling mentor Craig McDermott believes that, in Mitchell Starc, they have already found someone to take over as the leader of the bowling attack, reports ESPN Cricinfo.

Starc’s spell of fiery fast bowling, which on day two reached 160.2 kmph gave New Zealand’s batsmen plenty to think about, on an otherwise docile WACA pitch. McDermott believes that Starc’s maturity coupled with strength in depth in the fast bowling department means the retirement of Johnson isn’t likely to have a massive affect on the team.

"If anything we saw the changing of the guard here two days ago, with Mitchell Starc bowling consistently 150-odd kilometres an hour," McDermott said. "And for me sitting back and watching that it was like the changing of the guard for me and hopefully Mitchell Starc can have as an illustrious a career as Mitchell Johnson has.

"I think he [Starc] has been building towards that. It has taken some time. He has brought that control and that speed through the shorter format of the game. He has now proven he can do that on a very docile wicket which is more than heartening for us as a team and certainly probably for Mitchell to give him some really good confidence going forward as well. I look forward to watching him over the next 10 years.”

He was also very careful not to get into any trouble when speaking about the pitches for the first two Tests, but admitted they aren’t what they used to be.

"I am just trying not to lose my job ... the wickets been reasonably friendly," McDermott said. "The balls haven't been the best, I think we've only changed 11. That's not too bad is it, hopefully they have got the design right for the pink one come next week.

“Different series bring different wickets. We go back to 1994-95 when we had Warnie, our wickets were pretty dry and spin friendly, it is one of those things.

“We have got the best pace attack in the world and we come to our first two wickets and they are not really what they should be. It's one of those things you've got to deal with as a player, we won in Brisbane on a wicket that wasn’t as good as it has been in the past and this wicket has been more like a one day wicket than a Test wicket, I think there's been 184 fours I saw on the TV, that's astronomical as far as any bowler's concerned.”

On the bowlers who could take Johnson’s place in the side, McDermott spoke highly of James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Nathan Coulter-Nile.

"Obviously Sidds is still in the 12 for these Tests so he comes back into contention, and he's been bowling beautifully with good pace and swing in the ball," McDermott said.

"You've got other younger guys, there's James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile who's back bowling again and I was involved with him here the other day and he bowled quite quick and with good swing with the ball.

"Patto's one of the best bowlers in the country. We just have to make sure certainly from a workload point of view, if you are going to go the technical side, he has got enough numbers up there to play Test cricket, from that side of it. We just have to make sure he is bowling well, first and foremost, which I think he has in this last Shield game by all reports.”