Australia hopes rest on Johnson proving he can handle the heat in fourth Ashes Test

 
A tale of two Mitchells: Which Johnson will appear at Trent Bridge?
Chris Stocks4 August 2015

One of the key issues ahead of the fourth Ashes Test this week is which Mitchell Johnson will turn up.

Will it be the fearsome fast bowler who tore through England to grab 37 wickets during the winter of 2013-14 or the man who mentally disintegrated in the face of Barmy Army heckling in 2009 and 2010-11?

We have seen glimpses of both this summer. Johnson ripped through England as they crashed to 405-run defeat at Lord’s and produced brilliant, brutal bouncers to dismiss Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes during his first over on day two of the last Test at Edgbaston.

But he has suffered too, in the opening Test in Cardiff when he conceded 111 runs in a wicketless first innings and again at Edgbaston, imploding in his final over of the match as England seized a 2-1 series lead.

The wheels appeared to come off in Birmingham, where the raucous home crowd got to him, especially during that final over when a rattled Johnson aborted the run-up to his final ball of the match and, after starting again, eventually completed the delivery two yards short of the crease. Johnson, though, was at pains today to claim that he deliberately stopped his run-up because he wanted “to have a bit of fun with the crowd”.

Gentlemen and Sledgers: A History of the Ashes in quotes

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Much has been made of Johnson’s revival since his nadir of 2010-11, when his wayward bowling saw him barracked during a winter that saw England secure their first away Ashes series win for 24 years. Working closely with Australia pace legend Dennis Lillee, Johnson regained his mojo and laid his demons to rest as he inspired the whitewash of England two winters ago.

Speaking before that series, Johnson and every other prominent person in Australian cricket was adamant the mental frailties that saw him implode in past years were gone forever. But back in England and with thousands of partisan fans barracking him, the Barmy Army appears to have got into his head again.

Johnson can answer those doubts with wickets at Trent Bridge this week — and that is the only thing which will silence England’s fans. Whatever the true impact has been, the 33-year-old insisted today he took the taunts as a compliment while Darren Lehmann praised the bowler for his attitude.

“It’s been entertaining, to be perfectly honest and Mitchell has handled it really well,” said the Australia coach. “He’s taken all the pressure off the other players basically and they [the crowd] keep giving it to him.”

Australias coach Darren Lehmann awaits the start of play on the first day of the second Ashes cricket test match between England and Australia at Lord's cricket ground in London on July 16, 2015. AFP PHOTO / IAN KINGTON RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. NO ASS

What is remarkable is that his treatment during this series has been questioned back in Australia — the spiritual home of sledging.

One article in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph criticised the “relentless bullying” of Johnson by the Edgbaston crowd and even compared it to the racially driven abuse being meted out to Australian Rules player Adam Goodes, an aboriginal. Given such a viewpoint belittles the plight of Goodes, Johnson would no doubt be embarrassed by the comparison. Morever, Sydney’s Telegraph is part of the same newspaper group as Brisbane’s Courier Mail, who orchestrated their own very public ‘bullying’ campaign against England’s Stuart Broad during the 2013-14 Ashes series.

Outraged at his refusal to walk during the 2013 Trent Bridge Ashes Test, the Courier Mail’s ‘Broad Ban’ saw them refuse to carry the England bowler’s picture or even mention his name.

This was the winter when, provoked by Lehmann’s instruction to “get stuck into him”, Australian fans wore T-shirts emblazoned with the legend ‘Stuart Broad is a s**t bloke’. Andrew Thompson, tour manager for the Barmy Army, has branded accusations of fans ‘bullying’ Johnson “laughable” and added: “There’ll be a similar hostile atmosphere at Trent Bridge.”

How he deals with it may define the final two matches of this Ashes series.

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