DANE ELDRIDGE: Shane Warne’s criticism of Mitchell Starc has driven bowler to produce Ashes master class

You would’ve got long odds at the start of summer on Shane Warne playing a role in these Ashes, even despite the maestro’s ability to transcend reality.

But after all these years, the King of Spin has still found a way to bamboozle the Poms.

Mitchell Starc has single-handedly carried Australia’s bit-part attack this summer, with his record prior to today placing him clear atop the series tally with 18 wickets at an unplayable under-9s average of 14.00.

And barring something unprecedented like an Aussie meltdown or England batters placing value on their wicket, his influential heroics will place him firmly in Ashes folklore - and it could not happen to a better bloke.

This career-best form for the NSW speedster has culminated on the grandest stage thanks to years of toil, hardship and bowling down his hallway to one of Australia’s greatest modern batters.

But it’s not just experience and Alyssa Healy that’s the catalyst for his summer.

Nope, Starc’s sparkling career can also be traced back to another darling of Aussie cricket - Warney - and the spinner outrageously slamming him 11 years ago as “soft”.

For those unaware, the Sheik of Tweak was particularly harsh on the left-armer in his early years, especially when he was cast in and out of the test team like a fisherman’s lure.

As we know, when one of the heads on Australian cricket’s Mt Rushmore speaks, it is immediately enshrined in scripture - especially when it’s a Warneism.

And while it’s a case with Warne of who he hasn’t bagged rather than who he has, the dosage he served Starc in 2014 was savage even by the Hollywood spinner’s usual standards.

“He has to change his body language, it needs to be stronger - he looks a bit soft.”

Many speculated this damning critique by Warne was in response to Starc innocently writing off the legend as “done and dusted” in 2012 when he mused a comeback at age 42.

But whatever the reason, categorising the swing bowler as “soft” was a backhander that dogged him for years.

As we know, when one of the heads on Australian cricket’s Mt Rushmore speaks, it is immediately enshrined in scripture - especially when it’s a Warneism.

While the late guru’s observations were often free of data points and based solely on intangibles, his 708 Test wickets meant we hung off his every word and took it as gospel.

This ensured his one-word denunciation would remain attached to Starc so steadfastly that any delivery he sprayed down the leg side would not be attributed to focus or wrist position, but his failure to mouth-off and pump chest weights.

But whether Warne’s critique arose from being thin-skinned or simply because he liked his fast bowlers feral, unleashing the dreaded “S” word on Starc has paid off in spades.

That’s because it’s inspired a raw Aussie bowler who, despite it being barely believable, has now overtaken Wasim Akram as Test cricket’s most prolific left-arm fast bowler.

Of course, Starc is too mature and well-rounded to still be using Warne’s words as smelling salts.

But there’s something burning inside him that he keeps taking out on his opponents’ stumps, and it’s so unbearable he can often barely wait past his first over.

Already producing three straight opening overs with wickets this series - a feat he’s performed 26 times across his career - Starc’s legend for knocking over batters in the first six balls has become so predictable that opponents are 1-0 at the toss.

But it’s not just his destructive potential up top that’s been the showcase of his summer.

In the absence of trusted cohorts Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, Starc has demonstrated his versatility to be a cartel dad and a menace at the same time.

He was a nightmare in zippy conditions in Perth before figuring prominently again at the Gabba on a surface described as a CEO pitch- and not just because it was balder than Todd Greenberg.

With the curators preparing a flat deck designed to last longer than Perth’s two day spree, a benign pink ball saw Australia resorting early to short-ball tactics, a leg side field and Alex Carey wicketkeeping up to the stumps.

But despite it showing early shades of 2005 - not the year, but a projected total - the 35 year old still kept the Poms in check by toiling for a six wicket haul.

It proves Starc has fully flowered as the full pace package, a journey that was seeded on that fateful day over a decade ago when Warne leant forward in to his microphone to unload on his masculinity.

And while the leggie isn’t physically out there in the middle with him, he is still somewhere in the pacer’s psyche - although no longer demonstrably giving advice from first slip, but more likely tucked away down at fine-leg.