Australia star Mitchell Starc has revealed he has been using one of his wife's bats for the past seven months, with the switch helping him make his highest Test score in almost four years.
Starc is married to Australia women's captain Alyssa Healy and the pair are the third married couple to have both played Test cricket. And Starc, who is primarily a fast bowler but has made 11 half-centuries for Australia, borrowed one of her bats last year while facing South Africa.
He made the switch due to the pace of South Africa's attack and preferred the "lighter" pick up of Healy's bat. And it appears to have had a positive impact on his batting, with Starc scoring a crucial 41 in Australia's World Test Championship final win over India ahead of the Ashes.
It was Starc's highest score in Test cricket since he made an unbeaten 54 against England in the 2019 Ashes. "It's a little bit lighter," he said of the switch. "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. I said: 'There's two now, the other's in my bag!'"
Both Starc and Healy are sponsored by Australian manufacturer Kookaburra and it is not the first they have swapped bats, with Healy using one of her husband's during the 2016-17 Women's Big Bash as she helped the Sydney Sixers win the tournament.
"It's one-all because she took one of mine a few years ago," Starc added. " She cut the end of the handle off, so it was no good to me after that." However, Healy did disagree with Starc's version of events at the time.
"I'm not sure it is his bat, but I found it in the garage, it was not named,' she said. "I thought I'd take it out there and I used it for the first time at Spotless Stadium and it came off alright. Then the games I haven't used it in between I haven't gone so great."
Healy is currently captaining Australia in the Women's Ashes, with her side leading the multi-format series 6-4, while Starc has picked up 13 wickets in the Men's Ashes which Australia lead 2-1 heading into the fourth Test at Old Trafford next week.
