'Legend of a bloke to boot' - Pat Cummins congratulates Mitchell Starc for winning the Allan Border Medal

Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc won the Allan Border medal (Australia’s player of the year award) for his performances in 2021 earlier today. Pat Cummins, his teammate, co-bowler, and his captain in Test cricket reacted by calling him “Legend of a bloke.”

All-rounder Ashleigh Gardner and Mitchell Starc won their first Belinda Clarke and Allan Border medals respectively. Pat Cummins took it Twitter to congratulate his teammate. “So happy for this guy. Skill, perseverance, competitiveness, team man, and a legend of a bloke to boot!” he wrote.

So happy for this guy. Skill, perseverance, competitiveness, team man and a legend of a bloke to boot! 👏🏼 👏🏼 https://t.co/fOC1jTzdsL

— Pat Cummins (@patcummins30) January 29, 2022

The duo has been a part of Australia’s core bowling attack along with others for a few years now. They have been part of some iconic matches, in which they have given Aussies the winning ticket. This includes the iconic match against India at Adelaide in December 2020. The trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood took 17 off India’s total 19 wickets. While Starc handled the first innings with his four-for, Cummins and Hazlewood bowled out India for 36 in the next innings.

Mitchell Starc in 2021

More recently, Starc had a fabulous run with the ball in 2021. He picked up 43 wickets across formats at an average of 24.4 in the 12 months. In addition, he also got 241 runs with the bat and ended up being among Australia’s top 10 run-scorers in the calendar year.

Some of his best performances include the ODI series against West Indies which Australia won by 2-1 and the recently concluded Ashes, which Australia won by 4-0.

Against West Indies, he picked up 11 wickets with an economy of just over 6. This includes his five-wicket haul in the opening ODI game. In the dominant affair in the Ashes, Australian fast bowlers had the best time. Starc being one of them got 19 wickets in five matches at an average of 25.36.

The left-arm pacer also contributed to Australia’s victory in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. He was not very economical but had some wickets to his name. He got 9 wickets in the 7 matches that he played.

The 31-year old beat Mitchell Marsh by a margin of just one vote to win the Allan Border medal. Starc had 107 votes, while Marsh had 106 votes. Travis Head was in third place with 72 votes.