Mitchell Starc feels it will be 'very humbling' to level Dennis Lillee's Test scalps

Star Australian left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc achieved a career milestone on Day 1 of the second Test against West Indies at The Gabba, Brisbane as he completed 350 wickets in Tests. The 33-year-old came into the game with 348 scalps to his name and got the first success of the day in his fifth over getting Tagenarine Chanderpaul (21 off 48) caught at second slip.

He further struck in his very next over getting rid of Alick Athanaze (8 off 22) by making him edge one straight to wicketkeeper Alex Carey. As a result, the speedster completed his 350 scalps in Tests in his 87^th game. Reflecting on his milestone after the end of the day’s play, Starc stated that he will think about his milestones once he’s hung up his boots and revealed that Nathan Lyon asked him to pick 150 more.

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"Numbers are nice, [it's] something else to reflect on when I'm all done. Still got some wickets to take. Nice to have an impact today, go past that one…Gaz [Lyon] was saying there's another 150 to go,” Starc was quoted saying by ESPNCricinfo.

Having breached the 350-wicket mark, Starc is now just three more scalps away from levelling the legendary Australian seamer Dennis Lillee’s tally of 355 wickets which will make him the second-highest wicket-taker for Australia among seamers and fourth-highest overall.

Speaking about the prospect of matching Lillee’s numbers, Starc said it will be humbling but his focus remains on picking 20 wickets in the ongoing game and winning the match for Australia.

"They are all nice things to tick off and very humbling [to close in on Lillee] but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Need 20 wickets to win and we'll all reflect on [the landmarks] when we are finished, sitting around with a beer at a golf course somewhere. At the moment we are just enjoying our cricket as a group of players,” he added.

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Mitchell Starc finished the day with figures of 4/68

After dismissing Chanderpaul and Athanaze early on, the 33-year-old further got the scalps of Justin Greaves and a well-set Kavem Hodge (71 off 194) to finish the day with figures of 4/68 in 20 overs. Meanwhile, West Indies finished the day on 266/8 after 89.4 overs with Kevin Sinclair (16* off 37) at the crease.

The visitors were earlier reduced to 64/5 after Starc’s opening spell but a 149-run stand between Kavem Hodge and Joshua Da Silva (79 off 157) helped them reach a respectable total.