During the Adelaide Test match, former Australian keeper turned Nine Network commentator Ian Healy said, “Dennis Lillee might have revamped Johnson’s action but obviously Johnson has more confidence. But that doesn’t come overnight.”
Johnson’s journey towards regaining confidence started during a tournament all of us like to criticise, believing it is simply a cash cow that diminishes the development of young cricketers – the IPL.
Johnson was of one the naughty boys who didn’t do their homework in India and he also looked pedestrian in the fpurth and final Test against India in March.
Had Johnson been plucked away at that moment and thrown into an Ashes arena we could well have seen the headlines “Ditch Mitch”. Luckily there was time.
A week after one of Australia’s worst tours in a quarter of a century, Johnson landed in Mumbai to play for the IPL’s Indians, a team lead by one of Johnson’s most ardent backers in Ricky Ponting.
The left arm pacer played in 17 of 19 matches and ended up with 24 wickets – third highest in the IPL.
It was only T20 cricket but right through the tournament Johnson was gaining confidence. The pace was increasing and so was the belief.
Importantly, it was the role he was given and the T20 format that allowed him to bowl in those short sharp bursts. It allowed Johnson to touch speeds in excess of 150 for the first time since that exceptional tour of South Africa in 2009.
“As a coaching staff we didn’t care if he swung it or not,” said one of the Mumbai Indians staff after the IPL, “it was all about bowling nice and quick. Malinga has had huge success because of that theory and we were confident Johnson could replicate it.”
Perhaps this is where the whole nation had gone wrong with Johnson; we always looked at him as an Alan Davidson rather than a Jeff Thomson.
Captains and coaches waited patiently for Johnson to imitate the Wasim Akram’s in-swingers, trapping batsmen in front of the stumps. Trying to make Johnson into a bowler he was perhaps never destined to be was the biggest mistake that was made with him.
A day after being left out of the Ashes squad for England, Johnson tore through the Chennai Super Kings’ top order in a burst he has since repeated in Brisbane and Adelaide.
So impressive was Johnson that Brett Lee went on to say Johnson was in the form of his life, and extremely unlucky not to be in the Ashes squad.
But Johnson bided his time, just as he did between his short spells in the IPL.
The confidence Johnson gained during his IPL stint would then move into the Champions Trophy and subsequent ODI series in England. He was used sparingly and his role was to bowl with hostility rather.
The English batsmen were first greeted with Johnson’s brutality in the ODI series after the Ashes. Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott were made to hop and the maximum amount of overs Johnson bowled in a spell was four.
Even on the benign wickets of the sub-continent, Johnson single-handledly won Australia an ODI in Chandigarh with bowling figures of 4-43. Each one of his dismissals was to the short ball in one spell of three overs.
Since the start of this calendar year, Johnson has played in four Tests, 22 ODI and 22 T20s, adding up to 64 days of international cricket – the most by any Australia bowler this year.
Johnson has made mockery of the rotation policy by playing in all formats, starting with the less fancied T20. It is the shortest format of the game that has transformed him into a bowler that he perhaps was always meant to be for Australia.
It’s hard to accept, but the IPL has played a part.
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