Ashes 2025-26: ‘Our challenge will be, can we counter Starc this week?’ - Joe Root unfazed by pacer’s pink-ball threat

England’s first training session at the Gabba on Sunday, November 30, ahead of the second Ashes Test, featured a couple of unfamiliar bowlers. With the England Lions participating in the Prime Ministers’ XI match in Canberra, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue were away with them. The main squad’s bowlers were resting after Saturday’s session, leaving only Ben Stokes to bowl, while net bowlers and coaches worked overtime. Two new faces were also drafted in to help, brought in by bowling coach David Saker from the Sunshine Coast.

It was no coincidence that both were left-handed. After Mitchell Starc dismantled England in the first Test at Perth, giving Australia a 1-0 lead, extra preparation against left-arm pace was a clear priority. The tourists struggled to cope with Starc’s brilliance, as he finished with 10 wickets in the match, and they will need solutions ahead of the day-night Test. The 35-year-old remains one of the most dangerous bowlers in the longest format.

No bowler comes close to Starc’s record in pink-ball Tests, with 81 wickets at an average of 17.08, nor does anyone have his experience across 14 Tests with various variations of the ball. With half of each day’s play expected under lights, conditions will likely favour him once again. As is typical of England’s approach, the responsibility falls on individuals to find their own ways of combating Starc. Notably, Joe Root, one of England’s most inventive cricketers, spent the afternoon facing a left-handed thrower, working on a method against a familiar foe.

Root and Starc have faced each other 23 times across red and pink-ball formats, with Starc holding the upper hand. The second-most productive run-scorer in Test cricket averages just 17.36 against Starc, who has dismissed him 10 times in Tests, including twice last week.

"I think the first innings, to be honest, it was a pretty good ball. Nipped across you from straight in. I wasn't looking to whip it through square leg or anything like that. It was just one of those things you can get on a lively wicket. In England that probably doesn't carry, it drops short with soft hands. It's just one of the things you have to wear,” said Root as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"I just made a slight error of judgement and it costs you. You could play and miss at that, or it goes between stumps and keeper and goes for four, and you never think about it again,” he said of his 2nd innings dismissal.

Starc has consistently been able to challenge both edges of the bat, whether facing right or left-handed batters. Combined with his pace, angle, and swing, he was able to compensate for the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in the first Test, and could play a similar role in the second.

"Clearly the more he's played, the more experience he's getting, and the more skills he's developed. He's a fine bowler and has been for a long time - and that's never changed. They've had a couple of injuries, and he's had to step up and he did that very well in the last game. Our challenge will be, can we counter that this week?," said Root.

Root remains optimistic that solutions can be found, even in Starc’s challenging day-night conditions, and believes there is no reason why the bowler’s strengths cannot be managed to some extent. It is worth noting that Starc’s pink-ball record at the Gabba, while formidable, is a solid yet unspectacular 29.00 average, with 14 dismissals across six innings.

"It's understanding all of the different tools he might have and then how are you going to counter that both in a positive manner and in allowing yourself to do it for a long period of time. Just being clear individually in how you want to go about scoring your runs and readying yourself as best you can is going to be the key,” said Root.

With two days of practice in Canberra, England are confident with the current batch of pink balls, even though Root believes day-night matches are unnecessary for an Ashes series. Having played in all seven of England’s previous day-night Tests, he will need to draw on that experience, and share it with his teammates, if the tourists hope to challenge host's formidable record in the format, which currently stands at 13 wins from 14 matches. The only loss came here at the Gabba, against the West Indies in 2024.

"It felt pretty good when facing it. I think it's [the black seam] actually a nice way of really focusing on the ball. Look hard at that seam and give you as many cues as you can from that point of release. Of course, it's going to have its different challenges and nuances from the red ball, but that's all part and parcel of it. Can we be better at it than Australia? That's the question and the challenge ahead of us,” Root concluded.