Starc a pink-ball sceptic but ready to wreak havoc in Adelaide

It was the last day of June 2015 and with an Ashes series only a week away the Australians were conducting their main pre-series press event. The major topic of discussion, however, wasn't the looming campaign against England but the announcement, made only hours earlier by Cricket Australia, that the first-ever day-night Test would be staged at Adelaide Oval that November.

As they did the media rounds there were differing reactions from players. Brad Haddin and Steve Smith said the concept was exciting, Shane Watson expressed a concern about the unknown and Mitchell Johnson had misgivings about tinkering with tradition. Starc, however, delivered a scathing assessment of the pending pink-ball revolution. He was unimpressed about how the ball behaved and with its visibility, saying the initiative threw up "a huge number of questions and theories about where the game is going".

More than two years on and the day-night Test cricket's greatest sceptic - certainly among the Australian team, anyway - threatens to be its biggest star. Five weeks ago Starc issued a statement of intent by running through South Australia in the Sheffield Shield day-night round, inducing the pink Kookaburra to reverse swing and collecting 8-73 in the Redbacks' second innings and 10 for the match.

There was another in the nets at Adelaide Oval at the fast bowlers' primary pre-Test training hit-out on Thursday night. As a storm approached from the north west Starc produced some thunderbolts of his own under artificial light. On one occasion Usman Khawaja could only grin as he reared his head back in the nick of time. At the other end an amused David Warner watched on and when it was time for Khawaja to rotate out and be replaced by the opener, there was no protest from the Australian No.3 as he skipped out of the danger zone.

"It looked like he was in a really good rhythm [on Thursday] night, bowling with some good pace and swinging the ball," Smith said of Starc, who in two Tests and three Shield matches with the pink ball has claimed 28 wickets at an average of 17.

"He got the ball to reverse here in the Shield game, which is a little bit different. I think he's excited about this week. Hopefully he can get that ball swinging around at good pace."

It was in Adelaide four years ago that Starc's left-arm predecessor, Johnson, produced the headline act of one of the most fearsome individual series by a fast bowler of all time. Johnson took 5-16 in five overs right after lunch on day two and ended up with 7-40 as England were left with a first-innings deficit of 398. On that day England caved in to lose their last seven wickets for 61 runs.

That match was played with the red ball in the day but Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who also has a fine track record in the day-night format, have aspirations to inflict similar damage on England from Saturday.

The incremental improvements to the pink ball - this season's edition has a more coarse black seam and has a polished finish designed to be longer lasting and more visible - could even prove more advantageous for Starc if he is able to get the ball swinging both ways and moving around off the pitch as he was able to do here in late October.

In a man-of-the-match performance the 27-year-old was able to accomplish what had not been done before and extract reverse swing from a softening ball and zero in on the stumps of the South Australian batsmen.

Starc also played down the theory that England's James Anderson and Stuart Broad would be right at home with the pink Kookaburra, explaining it did not swing as much when it was new as the Dukes ball had for the first 20 overs or so when Joe Root's team played their first day-night Test at Edgbaston this year.

If all this leads one to believe Starc may have softened in his stance on the pink ball and its qualities then they would be wrong. He remains unconvinced.

Yet with a chance to inspire Australia to a 2-0 lead here over the next five days, he's happy to make do.