Mitchell Starc is the leading fast bowler in the world right now: Allan Donald

Allan Donald, who is currently in Sri Lanka with the Australian team, has Mitchell Starc and his ability to utilise the reverse swing will be a huge determining factor for the tourists when they play on the dry wicket of Sri Lanka.

Donald feels that the fast bowling lot has to maintain the unpredictability factor in order to achieve success in the punishing environment. The former South African pace ace Donald joined the Australian squad in Colombo today where the players sweated through a rigorous fitness and fielding session in humidity ahead of the opening Test on July 26. He will be working closely with Australia’s pace bowling attack comprising of Starc, Jackson Bird, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mitchell Marsh, Moises Henriques and Josh Hazlewood.

“For me the ball has to swing – there’s no excuses for that,” Donald told cricket.com.au on his first day in the job having arrived in Colombo from the UK on Sunday night. And it has to swing both ways, to keep the unpredictability level up. When I say both ways, that has to happen over the wicket and around the wicket. I don’t think you can come here (to Sri Lanka) in this heat, in this humidity and on these flat decks and be one-dimensional in the way the ball swings. It has to swing both ways.

“You get these (batting) partnerships that can go on for hundreds of runs – you need to nip those in the bud as quickly as possible. It’s going to take creative thinking, a lot of courage, patience, but most of all a helluva lot of attitude to do that all day long if you’re in the field for a long time. For me, the bloke that was the best at it was Wasim Akram because you didn’t know what was coming,” Donald said today.

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“You were always guessing and I think that’s where we need to go, that’s where the skill needs to go. When you come here (to Sri Lanka) that’s what it requires – to be unpredictable for a long time.”

Donald, who was nicknamed White Lighting during his playing days, considers left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc as the trump card who has the ability in his to rattle the opposition. Starc hasn’t played a Test since November last year. The young quickie, who was pushed n the sidelines to recover from ankle surgery and a fractured foot, made his international return in last month’s one-day series in the West Indies.

“Starc’s the one, without a shadow of doubt,” Donald said when asked who was best credentialled to deliver those telling spells needed to rattle the Sri Lankans who are expected to pose a far more potent threat on their home turf.

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“He’s a 150 (kilometre per hour) bowler, he’s done it in the World Cup and in Twenty20 cricket. I’ve seen him destroy top orders, middle orders, lower orders doing that same thing from both sides (of the wicket). That’s where he is at, and that’s why he is the leading fast bowler in the world right now.

“He leads that from the front, he just needs to be backed up by the rest of the group so there’s a lot of hard work over the next couple of weeks.”

Donald said it will be a challenging time for Australia’s new-ball pair (Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood most likely). He says they must make in-roads early with the new ball if they intend to dominate the hosts.

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“It’s massive, the new ball here in Sri Lanka is absolutely golden,” Donald said about the need to strike early and regularly at the start of an innings.”

“You’ve got to try and knock over two or three with the new ball. It’s going to test all your skill over here. When you go to the subcontinent and play against Sri Lanka, they are very smart in their backyard. They are clever here, they find a way, they grind the opposition down, especially when you bowl first and find yourself on the wrong end of the (coin) toss.”