Mitchell Johnson is a high risk and high reward type of player. When he bowls well Australia don’t just beat their opponent they knock them out.
On the flip side when he’s spraying the ball all over the place, the game can get away from the Aussies very quickly. There seems to be no middle ground with him, he’s either taking a lot of wickets or conceding a ton of runs.
At the Gabba he was taking wickets. He looked like the player we saw destroy South Africa in the summer of 2008/2009.
In that particular series, played over six Test matches, Johnson looked the most menacing bowler we’d seen since Jeff Thomson.
During that summer he broke Graeme Smith’s arm in the Sydney Test match and in the return series in South Africa (when Smith had recovered from that devastating injury) Johnson proceeded to break the Proteas’ captain’s finger.
He looked like he’d be the best fast bowler in the world for years to come but it didn’t work out that way.
He became terribly inconsistent.
For example in the third Test of the 2010/2011 Ashes series, Johnson was back to his devastating best.
He finished with match figures of 9/82 at an average of 9.11 runs per wicket.
But in the three other Tests he played that series he could only muster five more wickets conceding 472 runs at the very unhealthy average of 94.40.
This would be a constant theme through out his career, one great match followed by three or four really poor ones.
And just when you thought you’d had enough of him delivering all those wayward deliveries, he’d come out the next innings and take a bag full of wickets.
He’d suck you back in.
Thats why his first Test performance isn’t that much of a surprise, but can it continue?
My head says don’t get sucked in, but this time it feels different. Johnson came into this Test on the back of two really impressive one-day series performances over England and India.
His pace is back and he’s extremely intimidating.
He isn’t looking to swing the bowl any more, he just wants to bowl fast and it’s working.
If Johnson can play well in the second Test at the Adelaide Oval (a pitch that traditionally doesn’t offer the pacemen much help) it would go along way in helping Australia win the Ashes.
It would also go a long way in cementing his spot in the side.
Prior to the first Test match of this series, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Mitch Starc and Jackson Bird were all ahead of Johnson in the fast bowling pecking order.
Injuries to Pattinson, Bird and Starc gave him his opportunity.
He was considered our sixth best fast bowler but after his man of the match performance at the Gabba I think he has climbed up a few rungs.
Starc is out for the series but Bird and Pattinson are getting closer to full fitness.
Bird has very little chance of replacing Johnson as his bowling is very similar to Siddle and Harris and Australia love the variety Johnson offers.
Pattinson though has had a great start to his career and can also bowl with pace and aggression.
Plus he is very good at bowling with the new ball, which Johnson struggled with at the Gabba.
But at the age of 32 this is more than likely Johnson’s last chance at Test cricket and for the time being he’s making the most of it.
This could be new and improved version of Mitchell Johnson, the consistent one.
Then again it could be same one that keeps sucking us back in.
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