Starc takes another step on Johnson's road

Apart from their first names and left-handedness, Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson share something else in common - their own batsmen hate the thought of facing up to them in the nets.

Johnson's speed and awkward bounce are well known, but Starc's attributes are exceedingly similar. He bowls at his very fastest in practice, curving the new ball late and into the stumps when he's not banging in bouncers that threaten arms, gloves and heads at around 150kph. At the SCG the time around, one bending, piercing yorker spreadeagled Brad Haddin's stumps in the most comprehensive manner imaginable, while a bumper left Shane Watson losing his footing as he lurched late underneath it.

The difference between the two is that while Johnson has learned how to take this sort of terrifying stuff from the nets to the middle, Starc is still battling to find a way of doing so. His Test match appearances to date have been fleetingly brilliant but more commonly muted.

A five-wicket haul against South Africa at the WACA Ground in November 2012 came at a cost - 6 for 154 from 28.5 overs, most of Starc's wickets collected after Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla had rushed the game away from Australia by dominating him. As bowling analyses go, it was more Pyrrhic than perfect.

As with all of Starc's Test match appearances since Johnson re-emerged as a bowler reborn at the start of last summer, that WACA match was played alongside his more experienced fellow lefty. Without the new ball or a clear role as a strike bowler, Starc has given the appearance of a singer forgetting the words to a familiar tune. Not only has Starc's bowling slipped from the standards glimpsed in the nets or limited overs formats, but his body language has also taken on the apologetic, slightly lost air of the late ring-in at a house party.

"It's interesting," Chris Rogers said of a bowler he is happy to avoid in training. "He is a strike bowler, so hopefully he could take up that mantle that Johno has and maybe in previous games when they've played together it's been a bit of a difficult thing for Starcy because he hasn't quite known what his role has been. So if he does get that opportunity he will know exactly what he needs to do."

Shane Warne's words about Starc at the Gabba were harsh, but spoke of an issue that has not been anywhere near as prevalent when he has been able to lead an attack, new ball in hand. In ODIs Starc has often been irresistible, most notably on a warm day at the WACA later in the same summer as that South Africa Test. Bending the new ball treacherously late, he upended the West Indies in a manner that left plenty wondering who could possibly have kept him out that day.

Steven Smith was very much a fringe dweller back then, not part of the squad and yet to make the leap from promise to fulfilment that has vaulted him into the Australian captaincy only a year after he did not make the initial list of Cricket Australia contracts. He has seen plenty of Starc, and reasons that a home Test and a strike bowler's commission could yet bring out his best.

"I'm sure he's looking forward to playing out here in front of the SCG," Smith said. "Having one left-hander is good for us. The way we've seen Mitch go back and play in the Big Bash he's looked like he bowled exceptionally quick. We're looking forward to hopefully some of the same that he's produced in the BBL this week. I think if he sustains that for long periods, if he can keep that kind of pace up and sustain it for the long day he can be an extremely amazing bowler."

On match eve Smith had not yet decided whether he would grant Starc the chance to use the new ball. But it is reasonable to conclude that his best chance to succeed will be to take the shiny Kookaburra on a humid Sydney morning and charge into the wicket as fast as he can, his mind clear of questions about how he should work with other bowlers and how his action is grooved. That way he will be closer in mindset and attitude to the Starc seen in the nets, the BBL and the ODI team.

Above all, it should not be forgotten that Starc's current issues mirror those that were faced and beaten by Johnson himself. For some years, observers wondered why Johnson was persisted with when he looked about as sure of his bowling as doubtful spectators did. But time, and self-knowledge brought him to the realisation of enormous potential, helped by the belief of selectors and coaches who identified him. Starc is on that same journey, and this week will make another important step towards his destination from net bowling terror to Test match tormentor.