Watch Australia bowler Mitchell Starc take two hat-tricks in the same game ahead of the Ashes

If there’s one thing England didn’t want to see before the Ashes this winter, it was an Australian bowler becoming the first on Australian soil to take two hat-tricks in the same match.

With his left-arm pace, Starc rattled through Western Australia’s lower order for a second time on Tuesday, capping a 171-run Sheffield Shield victory for New South Wales in Sydney.

In the first innings, he did this.

And in the second innings he repeated the trick, taking wickets eight, nine and 10 again for his second hat-trick.

Two hat-tricks in two days does rather make a mockery of the feat.

Here’s Starc’s wife Alyssa Healy watching it unfold.

And with the Ashes just weeks away and England’s Steven Finn ruled out of the tour, Starc’s double hat-trick will have England fans wincing and Australian fans counting down the days.

It could be a long, arduous series for Joe Root’s team.