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Over a matter of months last summer, Mitchell Johnson became Australia’s most irreplaceable Test player and perhaps the best on the planet.
His value to the Aussies in the longest format is now so extreme that every possible effort should be made by Cricket Australia to prolong his Test career.
The most obvious way to protect the veteran quick would be to limit the amount of limited overs cricket he plays. Fortuitously for Cricket Australia, Johnson seems to be of the same mind.
He recently revealed that Test cricket was his main focus and hinted that he may be considering quitting both T20 and ODI cricket, or at least reducing his involvement in those formats.
“I think I’ve got to be a lot smarter now,” Johnson told cricket.com.au.
“Twenty20, I will quite happily say, is not my favourite format – I would rather play Test cricket. And maybe one-day cricket I have to look at as well.
“But my main goal now is to get to that 2015 Ashes series in England, so I’ll be doing everything I can to reach that goal.”
Johnson is contracted to play the remainder of this current Indian Premier League T20 season for Punjab.
He also indicated he had no immediate plan to forego 50-over cricket, saying he was keen to help Australia win next year’s World Cup to be held Down Under. Beyond that, who knows? But, at 33 this year, Johnson’s days as a fearsome 150kmh pacemen are fast running out.
Australia are well stocked for young pacemen with the likes of James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Jackson Bird and Pat Cummins having made bright starts to their Test careers. The problem is that all four of those quicks have proved injury prone.
Pattinson was revealed last week to be struggling once again with his back, which he strained while bowling in the third Test in South Africa in March. That Test was his first in seven months, after he broke down with stress fractures in his back during the Ashes in England last year.
Starc, meanwhile, is looking in good touch in the IPL but is also not long returned from a lengthy absence due to a back injury.
Bird may have been running around in coloured clothing in India if he hadn’t suffered another recent injury. The Tasmanian swing bowler was only freshly back from a long break due to back fractures when his health took another hit.
As for Cummins, it is impossible to predict when the precocious 20-year-old paceman will be physically prepared for his next crack at Test cricket. He seems incapable of avoiding injury.
All this means that, for now, Australia’s veteran quicks Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle are vital to the Test side. Yet Mitchell Johnson is the only one of that trio who is both fit and in form.
Harris has been phenomenal for Australia at Test level but there are no guarantees he will don the baggy green again. The Queenslander has a famously frail body, turns 35 this year and has recently undergone serious knee surgery.
He hopes to be back in time for the two-Test series against Pakistan in the UAE in October but that is reportedly unlikely.
Harris’ expected absence in that series could well allow Siddle to return to the side after he was dropped for the final Test against South Africa.
Siddle’s career is under threat due to a marked loss of pace and a concurrent fascination among the Australian hierarchy with genuine speed and aggression among bowlers.
Set against this backdrop of injuries, ageing and uncertainty, Johnson’s value is astronomical. Cricket Australia should offer him heavy incentives to scale back his appearances in limited overs cricket.
Over the next 18 months they have the opportunity to win their first Ashes series in England in 14 years and, in the process, prove themselves as the genuine number one Test team.
To do so they will need Johnson on the park. He must be proctected.