![Mitchell Starc completed 50 Test wickets in 2025 [Source: 141Adelaide_/X.com]](https://onecricketnews.akamaized.net/parth-editor/oc-dashboard/news-images-prod/1766300253224_Mitchell_Starc_Adelaide.jpg?type=hq)
Mitchell Starc completed 50 Test wickets in 2025 [Source: 141Adelaide_/X.com]
On Sunday morning, Australia successfully retained the Ashes for the fourth time in a row after they ran over the England lower order, which needed 228 runs on the final day with four wickets in hand. Just like the previous two Tests, one of the crucial cogs in their final day blitz was Mitchell Starc, who struck crucial blows of the set batters, Jamie Smith and Will Jacks, to strike the final punches.
Having gone wicketless in the second innings ahead of Day 5, while also receiving two official warnings for going into the protected area of the pitch during his follow-through, the southpaw ran through the final four batters, picking 3/62 by the end of the innings to win the match. With this three-fer, he also went past his previous best record of the most Test wickets in a calendar year, breaching the 50 wicket mark only for the second time in his career.
Below is the list of Starc's five most successful calendar years in Test cricket.
Most wickets for Mitchell Starc in a calendar year
- 51* wickets in 10 matches - 2025
- 50 wickets in 8 matches - 2016
- 46 wickets in 11 matches - 2015
- 42 wickets in 8 matches - 2019
- 38 wickets in 9 matches - 2023
*One Test remaining.
A dream year for Starc
The 2025 calendar year has proven to be one of Starc's best years in his career for not only breaching the 50-wicket mark in Test cricket but also leading the Aussie pace attack in the Ashes, while captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were sidelined for the first two Tests.
In the Ashes opener in Perth, he gave his team the early advantage with a 7/58 and backed it up with 3/55 to complete 10 wickets in the match. He went on to pick another 6/75 and 2/64 in the pink ball Test at the Gabba and collected the POTM awards in both matches.
Previously in 2025, he also reached the feat of 400 Test wickets in his 100th Test match, where he dismantled West Indies for 27 all out, courtesy of a 6/9 spell. During the ongoing series, he also notably went past Wasim Akram's Test wickets tally of 414, to become the most successful left-arm pacer and remains only 9 wickets behind Rangana Herath to become the leading wicket taker as a left-arm bowler in Tests.
With the Boxing Day Test at the MCG and the New Year's Test at the SCG left to be played, Starc is the leading wicket-taker of the Ashes 2025/26 with 22 wickets so far.
