Mitchell Starc achieves rare record with historic BBL return after a decade

Mitchell Starc makes his BBL return for Sydney Sixers [Source: @BBL/x]

Mitchell Starc found a place in the Sydney Sixers playing XI after making his return to the team for the ongoing BBL 2025-26 season. The legendary Australian paceman recently delivered a ‘Player of the Series’ performance in Australia’s 4-1 Ashes campaign against England at home.

Through the course of his latest appearance, Mitchell Starc also made his return to the BBL fold after a gap of more than 11 years, thus attaining a major record in the history of the tournament.

Mitchell Starc topples David Warner, Guptill for huge BBL record

Mitchell Starc, who made his BBL debut back during the 2011-12 edition of the competition for the Sydney Sixers, has played just 10 BBL games prior to his latest appearance in the ongoing 2025-26 season. Known for skipping BBL fixtures and multiple IPL seasons in a bid to prioritize international cricket for Australia, Starc has now spent 11 years and 18 days between BBL matches, thus marking the longest gap for any player in tournament’s history.

The Australian speed demon broke the previous records set by New Zealand’s Martin Guptill, South African stalwart Faf du Plessis as well as ex-national teammate David Warner in a rare BBL list. Here is a look at five players with the longest gap between BBL matches.

Players with longest gaps between BBL matches

Making his return to the Sydney Sixers after 11 seasons, Mitchell Starc made instant impact for his team by getting the huge wicket of Sydney Thunder opener Matthew Gilkes inside the powerplay overs for a sluggish run-a-ball 12. Bowling the final over of the powerplay, Starc sent down a fourth stump delivery, only for Gilkes to slice the ball towards Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques at mid-off.

His opening over, however, produced three boundaries in a huge 15-run over for the Sydney Thunder before the speedster made a fighting return in the remainder of his spell.

The 36-year-old eventually concluded with figures of 1-31 in his four overs, thus maintaining an economy rate of 7.75 in an innings where the Sydney Thunder went over nine runs per over at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

David Warner steals spotlight in Mitchell Starc’s comeback game

Sydney Thunder captain and legendary opener David Warner managed to foil Mitchell Starc’s BBL comeback party by slapping his 10th T20 century, his third BBL ton and his second of the ongoing BBL 2025-26 season. The left-hander smeared 110* runs off just 65 balls with 11 cracking boundaries and four huge sixes.

David Warner’s batting mayhem catapulted the Sydney Thunder to a monumental total of 189-6 in 20 overs after getting invited to bat first by Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques.

The match marks a must-win one for the Henriques-led and Mitchell Starc-starrer Sydney Sixers team towards the fag end of the season’s league stage. The Sydney Thunder team, on the other hand, has been already knocked out of contention of making it to top four.