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Australia's Mitchell Johnson celebrates after taking the wicket of England's Graham Onions. AAP Images
There’s no doubt Mitchell Johnson will play at the ‘Gabba come November 25th in the first Ashes Test. Like many, I’m not sure he deserves to be there.
Based on potential, Johnson deserves to carry the mantle of Australia’s ‘strike bowler’. Based on form, the reality is that he should not be selected in the current Australian Test team.
When Johnson first burst onto the international scene, I fell in love with his raw fast bowling prowess and his enterprising batting displays. At one stage pundits were suggesting he could bat at six as the team’s all-rounder.
His all-round cricketing form against South Africa buoyed Aussie fans who thought he had filled the strike bowling vacancy created by Glenn McGrath’s retirement. The fact that he could bat was an unexpected and welcoming plus.
Johnson’s dramatic form drop in the 2009 Ashes series was heartbreaking from an Australian point-of-view. The off-field ‘home and away’ style drama involving a three-way love/hate mess with his mother and girlfriend splashed onto the cricket pitch like hydrochloric acid to the face. It was ugly, and it clearly affected his ability to perform on the pitch.
Phar Lap was now running like a donkey, and the selectors didn’t have the heart to put him down. Like many budding cricket stars, he might’ve benefitted from being dropped from the team.
Since then his form hasn’t really recovered, yet he’s still favoured by Cricket Australia as Australia’s no.1 fast bowler. His inclusion in the bloated Test squad mirrors the current selection policy of picking players based on past feats and reputation, as opposed to current form.
After Johnson’s return of 1/128 from three one-day internationals against the plucky Sri Lankans, and his less than flattering debut for the Western Warriors in the Shield competition, the alarm bells must have been ringing very loudly in the Australian camp.
The fact that the Australian hierarchy sent him to the Perth WACA grade competition to search for form is indicative of this. It would have been a worthwhile exercise if he was returning from injury, but trying to find form in a local grade competition is a worrying sign.
What’s worse, his performance for Wanneroo against Claremont-Nedlands was questionable. 1/24 from 10 overs aren’t bad figures … if you don’t count the 11 wides he sent down.
And the Claremont-Nedlands openers didn’t seem to be overly impressed – one remarked that he wasn’t really bowling fast, the other was more polite stating the pitch wasn’t conducive to fast bowling.
Another concern for Australian fans was Johnson’s statement saying Brad Haddin had instructed him to “just run in and bowl fast and don’t think about anything else.”
But isn’t that just the problem? Great fast bowlers use more than brute force – great bowlers use their heads and out think batsmen to dismiss them. At Test-level, bowling flat-out fast is not enough. Just ask Shaun Tait.
And while I’m at it, I thought Troy Cooley was the bowling coach, not the wicket-keeper! If I was Cooley I’d give Haddin a big can of shut-the-fudge-up.
All this aside, Johnson needs to find form and find it fast – for his and Australia’s sake.
With the pressure mounting on the selectors to make some stronger decisions at the selection table, they won’t be so lenient on Johnson if he has a bad start to the upcoming Ashes series. Two sub-standard Test matches and they may be forced to drop him back to his adopted state.
With the likes of Ryan Harris, Peter George and Mitchell Starc improving and pressing for selection, he may find it difficult to return to the Test arena if he is demoted.
Johnson has been making some bold statements in the media in the lead up to the battle with England, however, he needs to cut the chatter make a big statement with the ball for the Warriors in their Sheffield Shield clash against Victoria.
This pre-Test hit-out is a very important match for him – a solid performance against the Bushrangers will give him some momentum going into the First Test and it will give the English batsmen something to think about.
If he can’t find form against the Vics then he, and Australia, could find it hard going against a confident English side who are sure to make the most of wayward and inconsistent bowling.
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