Mitchell Starc led Australia’s bowling attack in the 2025-26 Ashes series, and on Thursday (January 8), during the fifth and final day’s play of the ongoing fifth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, he equalled former Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath’s record of taking the most wickets in Tests by a left-arm bowler.
The 35-year-old left-arm pacer from Sydney has 433 wickets to his credit now in 105 Tests, which is equal to Herath’s tally. Herath played 93 Tests for Sri Lanka from 1999 to 2018 and dismissed 433 batters.
Starc picked up his 433rd Test wicket in the form of Josh Tongue, who was caught by Marnus Labuschagne on the second ball of the 89th over of England’s second innings after scoring 6 runs from 14 balls.
Most wickets in Tests by left-arm bowlers
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | MATCHES | WICKETS | BEST FIGURES | 5-WKT HAULS |
| Mitchell Starc | Australia | 105 | 433 | 7/58 | 18 |
| Rangana Herath | Sri Lanka | 93 | 433 | 9/127 | 34 |
| Wasim Akram | Pakistan | 104 | 414 | 7/119 | 25 |
| Daniel Vettori | New Zealand | 113 | 362 | 7/87 | 20 |
| Chaminda Vaas | Sri Lanka | 111 | 355 | 7/71 | 12 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | India | 89 | 348 | 7/42 | 15 |
| Trent Boult | New Zealand | 78 | 317 | 6/30 | 10 |
| Mitchell Johnson | Australia | 73 | 313 | 8/61 | 12 |
| Zaheer Khan | India | 92 | 311 | 7/87 | 11 |
| Derek Underwood | England | 86 | 297 | 8/51 | 17 |
Before taking Tongue’s wicket and bringing an end to England’s second innings, Starc picked up Jacob Bethell’s wicket. The 22-year-old left-handed batter from Barbados, who is now the second youngest English batter to score 150 runs in a Test match, was caught behind by Alex Carey on the second ball of the 85th over.
The wicket of Bethell, who made 154 runs from 265 balls, was Starc’s 30th wicket of the 2025-26 Ashes series.
Most wickets in 2025-26 Ashes
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | MATCHES | WICKETS | BEST FIGURES | 5-WKT HAULS |
| Mitchell Starc | Australia | 5 | 31 | 7/58 | 2 |
| Brydon Carse | England | 5 | 22 | 4/34 | 0 |
| Scott Boland | Australia | 5 | 20 | 4/33 | 0 |
| Michael Neser | Australia | 3 | 15 | 5/42 | 1 |
| Josh Tongue | England | 3 | 15 | 5/45 | 1 |
| Ben Stokes | England | 5 | 15 | 5/23 | 1 |
| Jofra Archer | England | 3 | 9 | 5/53 | 1 |
| Brendan Doggett | Australia | 2 | 7 | 3/51 | 0 |
| Pat Cummins | Australia | 1 | 6 | 3/48 | 0 |
| Gus Atkinson | England | 3 | 6 | 2/28 | 0 |
England scored 342 runs in their second innings of the ongoing fifth Ashes Test at Sydney Cricket Ground and set a total of 160 runs for the Aussies to chase down in their second innings to win the match and bag the series with a scoreline of 4-1.
For Australia, apart from Starc, who finished with figures of 3/72 in 18.2 overs, all-rounder Beau Webster also picked up three wickets in the second innings, and two English batters were sent back to the pavilion by Scott Boland, who conceded 46 runs in 25 overs.