Cricket: Mitchell Starc not a fan of the pink ball

Mitchell Starc of Australia poses with a Pink Day Night Test Ball during an Australian Test Cricket Portrait Session on October 19, 2015. Photo / Getty Images.

Work this one out: Mitchell Starc can't stand the pink ball and yet his numbers mark him as perhaps the biggest threat to New Zealand when the deciding test starts in Adelaide this Friday.

The tall left armer, who produced a sizzling 160.4kmph delivery in the Perth test, has put up remarkable figures in pink ball first-class matches.

Now add in the consensus opinion that the pink ball behaves more like the one-day white ball than the traditional test red and the conundrum grows another leg.

In Australia's domestic one-day competition this season, Starc snared 26 wickets at just 8.11 apiece in six games, 20 of which were either bowled or lbw.

Go back to the World Cup in February-March when he took a record 22 wickets at 10.18.
In two day-night Sheffield Shield matches, Starc has taken a formidable 15 wickets.

Against South Australia in Adelaide, with a pink ball just before the test series began, Starc, playing for New South Wales, blitzed the opposition, taking five for 28 in the first innings.

The guy clearly prospers with any non-red ball and his red ball proficiency is improving too.

The only problem is Starc isn't enamoured of the pink.

He made his feelings plain when the pink ball test was confirmed in late June.

"I'm yet to be convinced," Starc said at the time.

"It's definitely not a red ball. It doesn't react anything like the red ball, in terms of swing and the hardness of it.

''It goes soft pretty quickly. I didn't see a huge amount of reverse swing (in last year's Shield game) and I don't think it swung from memory too much until the artificial light took over.

"Personally, I couldn't see the thing at night on the boundary. I couldn't see the ball so I'm not sure how the crowd are going to see it.

"I can understand why it's happening ... but I guess time will tell to see whether it works or not.

"Ask me again after it's been played and we'll see what the reaction is then."

Starc won't be freshening up his views in the leadup to the test. He's not scheduled to give any media conferences before Friday's start.

Now that Mitchell Johnson has retired, Starc has taken leadership of the fast bowling group.

So at a time of significant change in the test game, one of the coloured balls' most dangerous exponents is among the pink balls staunchest critics.