Johnson is extremely grateful for everything Lillee has taught him
Since making a successful return to international cricket after being sidelined for seven months with a toe injury, Australia pace bowler Mitchell Johnson has been full of praise for his mentor Dennis Lillee, who worked alongside the left-arm seamer throughout his rehabilitation period.
Johnson noted that it had been an “amazing experience” to work side by side with one of the greatest pace bowlers to have ever represented Australia in the history of the sport.
“Obviously, it’s been an amazing experience working with Lillee,” Johnson said. “I had fair bit of time out of the game – seven months out of the game- and was able to work with him again at the MRF Pace academy as well as back home in our conditions.
“Lillee knows my game really well. I trust him very much. He has been around for me throughout my whole career. It’s always nice to hear good things from him. Also nice to go out there and perform and put in what he has asked me to do.”
Johnson has found it extremely difficult to regain his spot on the national roster, especially with the emergence of fellow left-arm pace bowler Mitchell Starc, who has become a superstar overnight, not just with the ball, but with the bat as well.
However, Johnson revealed that he and Starc are two very different people when it comes to bowling.
“I can’t tell him (Starc) where to bowl,” Johnson said. “I always said that variations work. You need change the pace. But you obviously have a challenge thrown at you. It depends on the condition and the bounce on the wicket. Short-ball is a useful thing in these conditions. The ball doesn’t swing and we rely on reverse swing and those are things we have spoken about.
“Back home, we bowl a bit fuller. We have to access the conditions. Myself or Siddle would be standing in at mid-off and mid-on to help these guys regarding the length.
“Learning from experience is the key. Even though I had McGrath and Lee, I learnt on my own. You need to learn from experience. They have had some good time in the practice games so they would have learnt a thing or so.”
Johnson revealed that he has been working on angling deliveries back into right-handers recently in order to make their lives in the middle a lot more difficult.
“Things have changed,” he admitted. “I want to bring the ball back into the righthanders. I have been working on it with Dennis. And short-ball is something you should bowl in all conditions. You get the ball to bounce knee high, then you are going get hit all over the park. So short ball definitely helps.”
Despite being a fast bowler going through tough times, Johnson stated that he continues to follow former Australia quick bowler Glenn McGrath’s philosophy word for word.
“As a fast bowler, I like to keep things simple,” he said. “I don’t like to overcomplicate. Cricket is a simple game. McGrath used to tell us to keep it simple around the off-stump and bowl the occasional bouncer. So that’s how I look at it. And have the little bit of aggression being the fast bowler. Injury is the best thing that has happened to me as I matured a lot during the phase working with Dennis.”
Johnson was also quick to dismiss the theory amongst the majority of cricket pundits, who believe that he is nothing more than an injury-prone bowler.
“I am not injury prone,” he said. “It’s just like every other bowler. It’s due to the amount of cricket, we play these days. Every young fast bowler like [Josh] Hazlewood have seen it. We are always playing ODIs, Tests and T20s and its non-stop.”
Johnson has also been passing down the lessons he learns from Lillee to younger talents since he likes “to lead by example”.
“I don’t think it has changed,” he said. “I always like to lead by example. The way I train, haven’t changed anything. Of course, the responsibility has grown and I try to help the guys as much I can and that’s how the Australian team is.
“We want to be the No 1 team in all formats of the game. We would like to help each other and leading from the front. Training hard and I spoke to Nathan Lyon, he is a spin bowler, and he wanted to have a chat, just about the mental side of things.
“I guess the experience I shared with him really helped him. That’s what is helping each other is about. That’s what McGrath and those guys did for me and it’s my turn to do those things.”