Mitchell Johnson feels that he has got his rhythm back

In November 2015, Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson announced his retirement from international cricket but decided to continue featuring in the domestic tournaments including IPL.

Johnson plays for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL and was expected to be a nightmare for the opposition batsmen. But he wasn’t as effective as he was expected to be and managed figures of 1/35 and 0/28 in his first two games for Punjab and was consequently dropped from the playing eleven.

Speaking to cricket.com.au, Johnson said that it took him a good two weeks before he got into a comfortable rhythm.

“It took two weeks to get the real desire,” Johnson said.

“I thought I had it, I felt really good with the ball in my hand, but I probably wasn’t quite there until two weeks into the tournament.”

Mitch said that he was in full flow in the nets and almost injured Manan Vohra and Glenn Maxwell, with some firing deliveries.

“Some of the net sessions I’ve been bowling I’ve had guys not come into my net because I’ve been pretty fired up,” Johnson said.

“I hit ‘Maxi’ (Australian teammate Glenn Maxwell) in the thumb in Hyderabad. I actually told him not to come into my net because I had just been told I got dropped.”

“I said, ‘Don’t come into my net, mate, I’m not in the mood.’ No-one else was coming into the net and he came in, I had just bowled to one of our young guys, Manan Vohra, who I gave an absolute barrage to.

“Then Maxi came in, three balls later he’s backed away to try to cut me and I just followed him and hit him on the thumb. Not that I was trying to intentionally hit him but I just followed him.

“Definitely the fire is there. It just took two weeks longer than I wanted it to.”

Johnson shared some of the pre-match motivation ideas of Punjab bowling coach, Joey Dawes – “Joey Dawes said early in the tournament, ‘I didn’t want to say this earlier but do we need to slap you before you go out and play? I’m not saying it in a bad way or anything, but do we need to slap you so you get p***ed off and fired up?’

“I was like, ‘That might not be a bad idea’.”

Johnson was unstoppable in the 2013-14 Ashes series, which Aussies whitewashed, he was also really effective in the follow-up tour of South Africa. He thinks that the lack of aggression in him is mainly due to how the game is now being umpired, with the officials frequently stepping in if there is any sign of tension between opposing players these days.

“That’s what I do miss the most and that’s what annoyed me the most as well at the end of my career, because that was starting to get pushed away a bit.

“Umpires were getting involved, that was one thing that really bothered me a little bit because that was part of the game for me and some others as well.

“That’s what I love, that’s what makes it exciting for me. It’s not just run and bowl, walk back to you mark, run in and bowl, do the same thing. You’ve got to get in the contest,” he concluded.

Also read – Sad to see Pakistani players not getting a chance to play in the IPL: Shoaib Akhtar