Mitchell Starc reveals he has been using Alyssa Healy’s bat for the past seven months

Mitchell Starc may be the first player in history to walk out for a men’s Test using his wife’s cricket bat.

But that has now been the case for the past seven months for Starc, who prefers the lighter pick up on Alyssa Healy’s bat to the one he was using previously.

‘It’s a little bit lighter,’ Starc said.

‘[South Africa’s] Anrich Nortje was bowling pretty fast through the summer, so I used a lighter bat. She didn’t know it was gone, so it was fine.’

‘I was cleaning out a few cricket bags at home, she was away on a tour. I said: “You know there’s three bats in this bag” and she didn’t know.

With his wife’s bat, Starc made 41 in the second innings of the World Test Championship final at The Oval last month, his highest Test score in almost four years

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‘I said: “There’s two now, the other’s in my bag!”.’

Starc’s switch has to some extent paid off.

He hit his highest Test score in almost four years against India in the second innings of the World Test Championship final with 41, and then faced 72 balls at Lord’s earlier this month to help build up a fourth-innings target for England.

With both sponsored by Kookaburra, it’s not the first time he and Healy have traded bats.

Healy used one of Starc’s for parts of the 2016-17 WBBL, hitting 55 off 38 balls against the Sydney Thunder using it, and 46 from 31 in another clash with Perth.

‘It’s one-all because she took one of mine a few years ago,’ Starc quipped.

‘She cut the end of the handle off, so it was no good to me after that.’

Starc said such work was not required on Healy’s bat, after only adding an extra grip to allow him to handle it better.

Healy will captain Australia against England in the first ODI of the multi-format Ashes

The 33-year-old has been able to spend time with Healy this week, after heading to Bristol to watch the wicketkeeper captain Australia in the first ODI in the multi-format Ashes.

He previously attended the first two days of the Test match at Trent Bridge, while Healy was able to get to parts of the first three Tests of the men’s tour.

Other Australian men’s players have travelled across Europe in a mandated four-day rest period for the team, with holidays spanning from Spain, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Paris.

Steve Smith was also due to take in tennis at Wimbledon, before an optional session for players in Manchester on Friday and full-squad training on Sunday.

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