Mitchell Johnson and I are compatible

Mitchell Starc believes he and Mitchell Johnson have answered critics who said they could not play in the same Test side with their performance on day two of Australia's series opener against New Zealand.

Starc (2-30) and Johnson (2-52) produced impressive displays as Australia took control of the first Test in Brisbane on Friday to leave the tourists trailing by 399 runs with five wickets remaining.

The pair took two wickets each late on as New Zealand reached 157-5 at the close, with Starc stating that concerns about their ability to play together helped motivate them.

"The fact we were written off a little bit to bowl together in a Test match again probably fired us up a bit," Starc said.

"To prove a few people wrong and bowl in that partnership was great for us. "We both really enjoy bowling in that partnership. There are times we will go for runs, but we've got 550 on the board.

"We're allowed to be attacking and aggressive, which showed in that first spell before tea where we probably leaked too many runs with attacking fields and attacking bowling."

Starc added Australia's bowling attack reacted to a wicket that was doing little in a stronger way than their New Zealand counterparts.

"We thought there was going to be enough in there. We felt if we bowled well enough and got the ball in the right areas often enough there'd be enough chances to take those wickets," Starc said.

"Those batsmen did very well to score 550 in good time to put us ahead of the game on day one and have [given us] that freedom.

"It's a good wicket but the odd one can still do a little bit and there's pace and carry as well."