Mitchell Starc removed Shadman Islam with the first ball of the match. It was a leading edge to Cameron Green at gully. Bangladesh were 0/1 before a single run had been scored at the Great Barrier Reef Arena.
It was the fourth time in Starc’s Test career that he had taken a wicket with the opening delivery of a match.
In his first 22 deliveries, Starc took five wickets. Tanzid Hasan, who had scored a century in the first Test at Darwin, was out for a duck. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto was trapped lbw with the very next ball.
Mominul Haque edged to Green. Litton Das fell in the same passage of bowling. Bangladesh were 12/5, with four of the five dismissals being ducks.
Starc’s figures after his first four overs read 4-3-4-5. He returned later to remove Shoriful Islam, finishing with 6/12 from 10 overs with six maidens. Bangladesh were bowled out for 64, their fourth-lowest total in Test history.
Shoriful Islam’s Career-Best Response
Bangladesh’s reply came from their own left-arm seamer. Shoriful Islam, 25, tore through Australia’s top order with figures of 7/48 from 15 overs. He became the first Bangladeshi bowler to take a seven-wicket haul against Australia.
Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith all fell to Shoriful on the opening day. On day two, he dismissed Green with an inswinging yorker that cannoned into the batter’s toe and gave him no chance.
Green had scored 67 from 105 balls, the only Australian batter to pass 50. Nathan Lyon added an unbeaten 32, including a six off Taskin Ahmed, but Australia were bowled out for 210. Shoriful’s haul broke Hasan Mahmud’s record of 6/55, set just one week earlier in Darwin.
Two left-arm seamers had taken 13 wickets between them on day one alone.
Australia’s lead of 146 proved more than enough. Starc struck again with the second new ball. In his second over of Bangladesh’s chase, he had Shadman Islam caught at point by Labuschagne for 1. The next delivery bowled Mominul Haque through the gate for a first-ball duck.
Starc was on a hat-trick for the second time in the match.
Pat Cummins took 3/10 from his 10 overs as Bangladesh collapsed from 51/3 to 95 all out. Mushfiqur Rahim top-scored with an unbeaten 29. Starc finished with 4/39, giving him match figures of 10/51 from 20 overs.
The match lasted 750 legal deliveries. It was the shortest completed Test in Australia in nearly a century and the fourth-shortest result in all of Test history. It was the first time Bangladesh were bowled out for under 100 in both innings of a Test.
Insider Read
Two left-arm seamers took 17 of the 30 wickets that fell in this match. That is not a coincidence. The Mackay pitch offered consistent pace and carry off a good length, but it was the angle generated by left-arm over bowling that made it lethal. A left-armer bowling over the wicket to a right-hander creates a natural line that moves the ball away from the bat after pitching. On a surface with genuine bounce like Mackay, that angle forces the batter to play at deliveries they would leave from a right-arm bowler. The margin for error disappears.
Starc exploited this with seam position rather than swing. His first-innings spell was built on balls that hit the seam and held their line or moved fractionally away. Shoriful did the same thing from the other end but added late inswing to right-handers, which is why Green’s dismissal was a yorker that curved back in sharply. When both ends of a pitch reward the same bowling angle, batting becomes a survival exercise. Mackay was that pitch.
“Much better week. We knew we weren’t at our best, or what we expect of ourselves, in Darwin. Bangladesh played really well. Take nothing away from them there. What we expect from ourselves this week is what we got, particularly with the ball on a wicket that aided us with the ball.”
Mitchell Starc, post-match, August 23, 2026
Mitchell Starc was at his brutal best against Bangladesh as he grabbed a ten-wicket haul in Mackay 👏#WTC27 | Report ➡️ https://t.co/H8tVlV7eKv pic.twitter.com/ATUdbQTiQe
— ICC (@ICC) August 23, 2026
Starc’s 10/51 rewrote multiple records. His first-innings six-wicket haul took him past Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon to become the leading wicket-taker in World Test Championship history with 234 wickets. Cummins and Lyon sit on 228 each.
His fifth wicket of the first innings also carried him past Dale Steyn’s 439 Test wickets. Starc now sits 10th on the all-time Test wicket-takers list with 445 wickets from 107 matches at an average of 26.27.
| Opponent | Venue | Year | Figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sri Lanka | Galle | 2016 | 11/94 |
| England | Perth | 2025 | 10/80 |
| West Indies | Sabina Park | 2025 | 10/30 |
| Bangladesh | Mackay | 2026 | 10/51 |
Mitchell Starc’s four 10-wicket match hauls in Tests.
His 10-wicket haul at Mackay came in just 109 balls, the fifth-fastest in Test history. He also leads the current WTC 2025-27 cycle with 58 wickets in 10 matches at an average of 16.98.
The series finished 1-1. Bangladesh’s historic nine-wicket win in Darwin remains a landmark result, but Australia’s response was emphatic. The concern for Australia remains their batting. Scores of 198, 284 and 210 across the two Tests suggest a top order that cannot consistently support an attack of this quality. Cummins acknowledged as much after the match, noting that Labuschagne’s ongoing struggles will face scrutiny ahead of the three-Test tour to South Africa in October.
Starc, 36, made his priorities clear. He confirmed that Test cricket remains the pinnacle and that he intends to continue for as long as his body allows. He has now won Player of the Series awards in three consecutive Test series: the West Indies tour, the Ashes, and the Bangladesh series.
Bangladesh captain Shanto reflected on the contrast between the two matches. He called the Darwin win the best result in Bangladesh’s history but admitted his team played poorly in Mackay. Bangladesh have risen to No. 6 in the ICC Test rankings for the first time. Shanto’s request for more regular tours to SENA countries, rather than gaps of 23 years between visits, underlines how much consistent overseas exposure matters for Bangladesh’s development.
Also Read:
Mitchell Starc on Letting Things Go and the Evolution of His Career
Australia’s Test Batting Crisis After Darwin
Matt Renshaw’s Test Comeback Push
Hayden Calls for Labuschagne to Be Dropped for Renshaw
Ponting Says Someone Must Be Dropped After Darwin
