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Three months ago Mitchell Johnson’s Test career had a large RIP sign attached to it. Not many observers felt he had anything more to offer a national team that seemed to have passed him by.
He was accused of everything from lack of consistency (a fair criticism) to that peculiarly intangible Australian put down of lacking ‘heart’.
Fast forward to the first week of 2013 and he has been selected in the Australian team as an all-rounder, a vote of confidence and increased responsibility that even in his most positive frames of mind must have seemed far-fetched in October.
In the eyes of the selectors at least, Johnson’s rise from the dead and subsequent redemption as a Test match player is complete.
But to describe Johnson’s comeback as a Lazarus from the dead type story over states Lazarus’ achievement.
Mitchell Johnson’s Test career died, was resurrected, and now has a summer bowling average of 20, a 92 not out and a mint-plated badge from the national selectors that states ‘all-rounder’.
Lazarus, on the other hand, was a one trick pony.
Johnson is a fine cricketer who at this point in time is in very good form with both the bat and the ball.
But up until now his performances have been judged principally on his bowling ability. A considerable ability that has seen him play 47 tests and take 200 wickets, one of only 14 players to do so in the history of Australian cricket.
Batting wise Johnson is the Errol Flynn of the Australian team, the personification of swashbuckling style. Though like the fabled Hollywood actor from Tasmania, his performances had been erratic and inconsistent.
He was initially picked on his devastating bowling form, was subsequently discarded because of a curious loss of it and then brought back because his country needed it.
Batting at 7 as the team’s designated all-rounder changes this dynamic considerably.
For Johnson, gone are the days when taking wickets with the ball and maybe scoring some bonus runs to help jack up Australia’s total would be considered an excellent performance.
He will take on the role made vital by Adam Gilchrist and a position that is now as important as any in the batting line-up of a Test match team. And like Gilchrist, a wicket keeping all-rounder, Johnson will be expected to make runs while maintaining his principle skill; the horror-film scary bowling that so terrified the Sri Lankans in Melbourne.
It will be interesting to see whether his freewheeling batting style remains or whether this new responsibility will naturally curb his predilection for swats to cow corner.
The pressure on his significant ability has increased considerably. It is not so much a significant concern for this match, but could be for series that wait across the Indian Ocean and further onto England.
It’s the second, more complicated coming of Mitchell Johnson. And for the sake of Australia’s near future it is hoped that it will be a successful one.
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