Mitchell Johnson

[Ill Chicken]

I just feel like at the moment he is a good bowler... with the potential to be great...

The question is when does potential expire and consistent results are put on the board?

NSW need to be asking the same questions about Moses Henriques, who has been gifted the easiest run in the world.

 

[Bloods boy from the Bush]

Does anyone else feel that Johnson is working too hard on his game. Trying to develop an In-Swinger to Right Handers while yes if he could do it he would be devistating but he doesnt seem to be able to produce it often and trying for this causes his normal style angling across to be far less penertrating.

Even with his batting he made a 90 odd not out and 123 in SA by just smacking the bowling around now he seems to be trying to be much more conventional and techniqually sound in defence and isnt havin the same impact.

I just think he needs to go back to what served him well in SA bowling flat-out across the right handers and being aggressive but not ridiculous with the bat instead of changing his natural game.

 

[Jimthegreat]

I don't think that's fair. No doubting his bowling on Day 1 was some of the biggest crap you will ever see, but we actually fought back well and got them out for around 400ish.

In my opinion, our woeful batting in the first innings (all out 215 after being 8/150 odd from memory) lost us the match at Lords.

Anyway, kind of irrelevant to the topic at hand but I do think its a common misconception that Mitch Johnson was to blame for us losing the Lords test/Ashes. He was poor in spells, but our batting was what cost us.

Batting was ok for most part. You will get a couple of collapses during a series. The bowling though was consistently poor. If you bowl badly enough, as did Johnson at Lord's, who basically did gift England that Test, the batting will sometimes feel the pressure. Bowling lost us that series mainly.

No complaints about Johnson's recent bowling, close to the stumps, more accurate, more pressure and actually moving the ball away from the right hander. Compliments Bollinger very nicely. Hilfenhaus in those two and with Hauritz and Watson bowling well that part of our game is looking better.

 

[Bomber Bears]

Johnsons first innings bowling performance at Lords was just about the worst I have seen from an Australian. It was disgusting. How he ended up with 3 wickets i do not know, he was absolutely terrible. I dont know why Ponting insisted on continuing to bowl him as long as he did. Our batting was not good but our bowling, particulrly from Johnson, just gave England the initiative and control over how the game panned out. Mentally Australia was a long behind from the outset after such a shitty display. Hilfenhaus was the only bowler who bowled well throughout the Ashes series. Yes Johnson took 20 wickets in the series (4 a test isnt exactly a phenomonal record), but how many awful spells did he bowl as well? How many times were we behind the 8-ball after a spell of half volleys and leg side deliveries from Johnson?

He shouldn't have been ICC cricket of the year, he was helped by playing alot of test cricket there when compared to South Africa and India.
Even in this home series, he was mostly aweful against the Windies yet seemed to get wickets in bursts, despite letting them get off to some excellent starts (Gayle loved his bowling). He bowled well in Melbourne and Sydney and then was rubbish in Hobart again. Doesnt have the consistency to be a spearhead. Bollinger is a superior bowler to him, at the batsmen all the time which is why he gets wickets without going for as many runs. Hilfenhaus was really starting to come into his own as a test bowler after a poor series in South Africa before injury struck his down, another who makes the batsmen play. Johnsons key aspect is pace. He bowls quick enough to grab the edge with the wide half volleys he bowls and to rush them with his short balls. He is 28 years old, however, and once his pace starts to drop he will be cannon fodder, unless he learns how to bowl the ball and stay upright in his delivery.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Does anyone else feel that Johnson is working too hard on his game. Trying to develop an In-Swinger to Right Handers while yes if he could do it he would be devistating but he doesnt seem to be able to produce it often and trying for this causes his normal style angling across to be far less penertrating.

I think that is a valid point. McGrath's worst test match was mid 90's in Brisbane when he tried to bowl outswingers because the conventional wisdom was that he needed to take it away from the right handers to take wickets. He bowled shit, got dropped, didn't bother with swinging the ball for the rest of his career and never looked back.

Perhaps Johnson needs to forget those two jaffas he bowled in South Africa that curled back brilliantly and instead just bowl quick and angle it across.

 

[BACCS]

One of the most talked about cricketers we have right now (and has been for a while). Burst onto the international scene out of nowhere all those years ago at the Gabba against Sri Lanka in a Test (after being 12th man for the previous Ashes series), and has kept his spot pretty much ever since.

Developed his batting over time, to the point where he had an average over 30 at one stage, with a century and 96* to his name. In 2009 he was the leading wicket taker with 63 and scored over 500 runs, where he looked to have emerged as the next big thing in cricket. But this year, he has seriously gone down hill fast (even though he somehow still takes wickets).

What has exactly happened to him? I've always loved Johnson as a cricketer, and the sudden decline has come as a bit of a shock.

His spot in the team is secure, I'd just like him to find some form before the Ashes!

 

[King Elvis]

Over-coached maybe?

 

[BACCS]

Over-coached maybe?

Good point. He managed to master the inswinger very well though, I'd like to know what happened to that. And the outswinger seems to have completley gone. His damaging balls are non existent atm.

 

[amer]

He never mastered the inswinger, he got it going for a brief stint in South Africa. He's capable of the unthinkable but his bread and butter is as shithouse as it gets, or at least, it is these days. His action has changed as well. Put me in the overcoached camp, though I question his mental toughness in with that.

 

[BACCS]

He never mastered the inswinger, he got it going for a brief stint in South Africa. He's capable of the unthinkable but his bread and butter is as shithouse as it gets, or at least, it is these days. His action has changed as well. Put me in the overcoached camp, though I question his mental toughness in with that.

Could you elaborate on that? I haven't noticed much of a change, but I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to technique.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Over-coached maybe?

I think you are spot on, they tried to get him to swing the ball and it just ain't his thing. I think he needs another shield game before the Ashes and to bowl well to be considered for the Gabba test. His form is just so bad.

 

[mattymac]

just had a few flukey patches early on when everyone was desperately keen for someone to put their hand up for the post mcgrath-clark era. good form coincided with that demand and we all stamped him prematurely as our strike bowler for the next era. never been consistently good and when he's bad he looks bloody awful. at his best when he's charging in on instinct not trying to exert control, which he can't do.

overcoached, underdone and weak in the head. should be at the waca today

 

[King Elvis]

I do think he's mentally soft, but some of those spells he bowled, especially against the Saffers, that wasn't flukey.

 

[mattymac]

i'd like to see him repeat them


EDIT: flukey was prolly a bit harsh. insert "not since repeated"

 

[aussie1st]

TBH the only thing keeping him in his side is his ability to pick up wickets from nothing. If they go hes in trouble as he usually going at 4 an over. Starting to question his spot in the ODI side, can just afford him in the Test side as long as Hauritz isn't going at 4 an over or Siddle for that matter.

 

[Heisenberg_]

Over coaching is the problem, he is never ever going to be a good line and length. The times he has destroyed the the opposition he went out with the intention to intimidate and hurt the batsmen, he would actually get them out as well but it looks like the coaches have tried to change his style. It's so frustrating following Australian cricket ATM any idiot can see the problem but nothing happens.

 

[frankrizzo]

Frustrating thing with Johnson is he will bowl all over the shop in a series then come out after the series and talk about how he was trying to many things and he's now going to go back to basics ect then a few series later the whole process gets repeated.

Over coached or not the bloke isn't exactly the sharpest pencil in the box.

Sadly he might be another harmison, talent to burn but no brains or balls to back it up.

 

[royboy2]

His problem is he's not seeing his Mum enough

 

[amer]

Could you elaborate on that? I haven't noticed much of a change, but I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to technique.

Go to 2:13 in this video:

[YOUTUBE]B3afe2wpA4c[/YOUTUBE]

Also note 1:13. Smooth, upright, landing the ball on a beautiful length and getting some movement off the seam in the opposite direction to his traditional "angle across" delivery.

Now go watch some footage of his bowling in England last year.

The bloke in that video there, that's who Dennis Lillee saw and was blown away by, not the awkward, low, slingy pie chucker ambling in now. I suspect the change was made in an attempt to get the seam upright and to more consistently swing the ball, with a look towards "completing" the package, but it has had the reverse effect. As was mentioned in another thread recently, Troy Cooley has form with this, ruining Anderson for a time.

 

[Bucking Beads]

He bowled like that in South Africa as well. Troy Cooley has slowly destroyed his action...

 

[amer]

He bowled like that in South Africa as well. Troy Cooley has slowly destroyed his action...

If you look closely, he was not all that upright in South Africa either. It has obviously worsened with his confidence but there's a definite long term change evident. That devastating patch is obviously a flash of what they're trying to achieve, but if he hasn't been able to find a passable baseline level of performance after a couple of years of trying, I don't think it's in the side's best interests to continue down this path.

 

[Bucking Beads]

I don't think he will be able to get back to his best and if he does it will take a change of action which will be a bloody tough thing to achieve IMO. We will have to see what happens.

 

[King Elvis]

Amer is right, he looks to be a completely different bowler.

A shitter one.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Amer is right, he looks to be a completely different bowler.

A shitter one.

and to top it off his batting is gone. I blame his missus, he should get rid of her and send her to me...

 

[BACCS]

Go to 2:13 in this video:

[youtube]B3afe2wpA4c[/youtube]

Also note 1:13. Smooth, upright, landing the ball on a beautiful length and getting some movement off the seam in the opposite direction to his traditional "angle across" delivery.

Now go watch some footage of his bowling in England last year.

The bloke in that video there, that's who Dennis Lillee saw and was blown away by, not the awkward, low, slingy pie chucker ambling in now. I suspect the change was made in an attempt to get the seam upright and to more consistently swing the ball, with a look towards "completing" the package, but it has had the reverse effect. As was mentioned in another thread recently, Troy Cooley has form with this, ruining Anderson for a time.

Damn, that was an absolute joffa of a delivery! Comparing his bowling from now to then, is like comparing Mick Lewis to Glenn Mcgrath. So then, what is stopping him from returning to that type of form? Surely he has to take some of the responsibility for how he bowls, and not just Cooley?