Mitchell Johnson inching to play for Perth Scorchers in the BBL

Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson has declared himself set to play for the Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League but is yet to sign with any of the teams. After his retirement from the WACA last summer, he had featured in the Indian Premier League but hasn’t made much of an impact as he had played in just 3 off the 14 matches. According to his comments, he said that his conversations with Scorchers coach Justin Langer helped him rediscover the “fire in the belly”.

“I’m probably leaning towards playing at this point in time but I’ve got to go and make a decision,” Johnson said today on Fox Sports News.

“It’s something that I’m thinking about at the moment, where I want to go with my cricket, whether I want to play the T20 circuit or not. (The Big Bash is) a pretty awesome tournament, a lot of the boys talk about how much fun they have and the ratings for it have been huge. The way Justin has put it to me in the conversations we’ve had is he wants me to go out there and have some fun,” he added.

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He said that he used to have the pressure of being the strike bowler over the last decade for the Australians. “So that takes a lot of pressure off me. I’ve been so used to being the No.1 strike bowler for so many years, it definitely puts pressure on you to perform. He wants me to go and be with the boys, enjoy the atmosphere of the dressing room, train with the boys and help out. That’s the big thing I’m looking forward to, being involved with the young guys coming through.”

“I see myself more doing more of the mentoring role,” Johnson said. “Maybe coaching a bit more like what Dennis Lillee did, in that you come in for a week here or there, come into certain teams or work with individual players. I feel that’s probably more suited to me than a big team-based (role),” he concluded.