Let’s Starc at the very beginning!

A few days past his 10th anniversary as an Australian Test cricketer having received his baggy green from the venerable Richie Benaud leftarm quick Mitchell Starc was the toast of the Gabba on Wednesday And for good reason He bowled the first ball of the 202122 Ashes and uprooted Rory Burnsrsquos leg stumpldquoItrsquos all happening at the Gabbardquo It was not Tony Greig Hersquos no longer with us It was not Bill Lawry Channel Nine no longer beam international cricket in Australia But it was Foxrsquos Adam Gilchrist chanting that line from his commentary positionA wicket off the first ball of a Testhellipcan it get better for the bowler and his side It canrsquotmdashespecially for a side that has been coping with the Tim Paine texting scandal For Starc it was a beentheredonethat moment a repetition of Galle 2016 when he got Sri Lankan Dimuth Karunaratne whose dismissal helped the tall Australian join the likes of compatriots Graham McKenzie and Glenn McGrath Also Ernest McCormick who lit up the same venue 85 Decembers ago when he sent back Englandrsquos Stan Worthington in 1936 for a dramatic Ashes kickoffWorthingtonhellipnow that name rings a bell Hersquos the same player whose BCCIconducted coaching camp for schoolboys in Hyderabad was attended by Sunil Gavaskar The batting great wrote in Sunny Days ldquoMr Worthington changed my Indian technique to the English one and gave me many invaluable tipsrdquoAround eight years latermdashat Birmingham in 1974mdashGavaskar endured what Worthington did through a firstballofaTest duck off Geoff Arnold fresh from his heroics in the second Test at Lordrsquos where India were bowled out for 42 ldquoIt was a catastrophic start for India with the consistent Gavaskar who has been singularly unfortunate in the manner of his dismissals in the Tests falling to what turned out to be the best ball of the day the first ball of the match a rising shortpitched delivery flying off his gloves into Alan Knottrsquos gloves as the batsman tried to move hurriedly out of harmrsquos wayrdquo Khalid Ansari told his Sportsweek readersAt Birmingham in 2011 Gavaskar regaled us with an anecdote after Virender Sehwagrsquos golden duck in that Test The Mumbai master recalled how Australianborn umpire Bill Alley standing in his first Test displayed an expletiveladen show of annoyance at him for walking because he wanted to signal his maiden Test decisionGavaskar was also dismissed off the first ball of a Test in Kolkata during the 1983 series against the West Indies This time he was caught behind by Jeff Dujon off Malcolm Marshall but the similarity was that the ball touched Gavaskarrsquos gloves on both occasions The India v Pakistan Test at Jaipur in early 1987 started with Gavaskar getting caught in the slips by Javed Miandad off Imran KhanSudhir Naik who opened with Gavaskar at Birmingham in 1974 suffered a similar fate later that year against the West Indies at Kolkata where Andy Roberts had him caught behind by Deryck Murray ldquoI shaped up to play Robertsrsquos incoming delivery but after pitching it went out and took the edgerdquo Naik told me on Wednesday About watching Arnold getting Gavaskar while he was at the other end Naik said ldquoIt came as a shock because you expect the bowler to bowl a loosener on the first ball of a Test It stings you but then you move on because you have to do your jobrdquoAnshuman Gaekwad was at the other end when Gavaskar was dismissed at Kolkata in 1983 and reckoned the packed house added to the gloom one experiences for that moment Gaekwad was in the playing XI in 1974 In fact he was making his debut and scored 36 and 4 in the Test that India won to get back in the seriesldquoI was also at the other end when Sunil was bowled by Michael Holding off the first ball of our second innings at Kingston in 1983 It was deflating to see the best batsman go The Jamaica crowd just erupted in joyrdquo recalled GaekwadldquoUncontrolled frenzy of a crowd of 10000rdquo was how Tony Cozier described their reaction in West Indies Cricket Annual 1983A list of firstballofaTest duck instances shows three mentions of Bangladeshrsquos Hannan Sarkar Amazingly on all three instances Dhaka Gros Islet and Kingston the bowler was Pedro Collins In that batsmanbowler list Kapil Dev features twice for getting Mohsin Khan at the start of the 1983 Jalandhar Test against Pakistan and Jimmy Cook in Durban during the 199293 tour of South Africa S Abid Ali is the first Indian bowler on the chronological list for having dismissed Roy Fredericks at PortofSpain where India beat West Indies for the first time in a TestHas a firstball dismissal led to onersquos Test career ending Australiarsquos dashing opening batsman Keith Stackpole didnrsquot play another Test after his second duck of the 197374 Auckland Test against New Zealand followed his firstball dismissal at Eden Park He fell to future great Richard Hadlee in the first innings and Richard Collinge in the second but Australia won by 297 runs Stackpole was a brilliant strokeplayer and various theories floated around when the runs dried up But he knew what was wrong and said so in his book Not Just for Openers ldquoThe truth was that for a few years the ball had looked the size of a basketball and now it was more like the eye of a needlerdquoHistory tells us that firstball wicket instances do not always eventuate in a win for the side that celebrate that moment Starc can be proud of himself but Rory need not burnmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper