Two wickets in the second Test against New Zealand will elevate Mitch Starc into rarefied cricket air as the stoic fast bowler reaps the rewards of pushing through one of longest runs of cricket in his career.

Starc, on 354 wickets, will surpass the legendary Dennis Lillee on Australia’s all-time leading Test wicket-takers list and move to fourth behind Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Nathan Lyon with two Kiwi scalps at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.

His presence in the clash will be his seventh-straight Test, having played all five during the home summer, something he’s never done in his 14-year international career.

It’s a run that includes rests from ODI matches and after he returned home from last year’s World Cup success with shoulder and groin issues that plagued him during the tournament in India.

But with the words of former coach Tim Nielsen from an early tour still ringing in his ears, Starc has found the capacity to put any niggles to one side and deliver.

“It would have been my first or second tour and I was still learning what all those pains were,” Starc said at Hagley Oval on Wednesday.

“Obviously, the reports get around from physios to coaches, and I sort of got told to ‘harden the f--k up’ a little bit.

“Timmy Nielsen (men’s team coach from 2007-2011) probably made me aware of that early doors. There’s plenty of times you need to be honest with the medical staff but other times you’ve got to know when to push through things.

“Whether he used those words or not, it was a long time ago. I was still learning how to bowl and what my body was telling me.

“I was still going through all those developing pains and whatnot, and my body adapted to things and it was like ‘your name’s always down as this is sore, that’s sore’ – there’s good pain and bad pain.

“That probably pushed me a long way to working that out a bit quicker and not having to say when everything was sore,

“If I only played when I was 100 per cent, I would have probably played 10 games.”

Starc said it was “humbling” to be within touching distance of a legend like Lillee.

But with no immediate end in sight given Starc’s capacity to work smarter, not harder, as he approaches his 89th Test, plenty more wickets loom in his future.

“I think a lot of work goes into that, a lot of work that people don’t see, whether it be the rehab or the handling of niggles or there’s certainly sore mornings for a lot of people,” Starc said.

“But I think that comes down to experiencing and knowing how to deal with certain things and finding ways through them to still make an impact with a team or perform and carry out your role.

“I’ve never really been about those numbers – it’s cool, it’s humbling, it means I’m old and I’ve played a little bit of cricket.

“But we love the Test wins, so that’s front of mind first and foremost.”