The two sides of Mitchell Johnson in Test cricket

Mitchell Johnson struggles enormously overseas

Truly one of the world’s elite fast bowlers when plying his trade in favourable conditions, Australian paceman Mitchell Johnson morphs into a meek imposter of himself when the pitch doesn’t offer much pace and bounce; something the 33-year-old left-armer will desperately want to rectify as he heads into the home stretch of his career.

After another poor performance on a good batting pitch in the First Test against England last week, many are questioning his ability away from the comforts he enjoys.

As they say, the numbers don’t lie, so check out these stats to compare the two sides of Mitchell Johnson in Test cricket.

In favourable conditions:

Given Johnson’s style of banging the ball in short and utilising the pace in the wicket to unnerve batsmen, it should come as no surprise that his career-best performances with the ball have come in countries renowned for these conditions.

Out of his 12 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket, a massive 8 have come in his own backyard, while he has also nabbed 2 in South Africa and a solitary bag of five in New Zealand. His triplet of 10-wicket hauls in Test cricket were also taken in the same three countries.

In these performances, Johnson was able to utilise these conditions to his advantage and turned batting into a dreaded nightmare, as his thunderous bouncers felt more like heat-seeking missiles for even the most accomplished batsman.

Fortunately though for opposing teams - unlike some of the other great fast bowlers of our game such as Glenn McGrath, who had a bag of tricks that allowed him to adapt worldwide - Johnson can easily be nullified with a slow wicket and a bit of patience, as the ‘hit-the-deck’ approach is his only way of thinking.

At home, his bowling average of 24.50 backs up the claim that he is the world’s premier strike fast bowler. However, when playing away from home, his average balloons to an unholy 31.66 (as well as an average of 43.77 at neutral venues).

Johnson needs to find a way to succeed in trying conditions

In unfavourable conditions:

Put nicely, his returns are mediocre at best. The 33-year-old has played 31 Tests that are classed by leading stats website CricInfo as being away matches (there are four that are classed as being neutral), and has attained no major bowling success outside of South Africa and New Zealand. Excluding the aforementioned countries, he has only two five-wicket hauls away from home from over 60 innings of bowling, setting a bleak scene of his performances.

The 2014/15 Australian Test summer produced much more placid pitches than normal, and as a result Johnson’s effectiveness also waned, failing to live up to his previous lofty heights of summers gone by. He was a shadow of the fearsome bowler who terrorised the Poms just 12 months earlier. His return was average; just 13 wickets during the series, and he failed to take a 5-wicket haul. He also conceded more than 80 runs during an innings thrice, including being carted for an unwanted century on two occasions.

Picking up from there, his recent Test performances on the West Indies tour in June mirrored his previous form. Again he was unable to bag a handful of wickets, and was consistently being worked around for more than 3 runs per over against a brittle and understrength Windies batting line-up. While MJ started the tour as the side’s number 1 bowling weapon, he finished it down the pecking order, as he faded into the background and played second fiddle to his younger bowling partners.

Aside from statistics, Johnson’s most forgettable performances also came in similar conditions to those mentioned above – on the Ashes Tour of England and Wales in 2009. In one Test that series, he frequently sprayed the ball left and right, unable to seize any sort of control whatsoever, leading to merciless sledging from the “Barmy Army”; taunts which still pain him today.

He was subsequently dropped mid-series following this showing to work on technical aspects; which is an embarrassing moment for an established Test player.

With his ineffective first Test performance from this series and the memories of 2009 in mind, England are sure to prepare more dry, lifeless pitches for the rest of the Ashes to try and render him ineffective. The Second Test pitch at Lord’s is as flat as it can be and so the need to sort out his slow pitch bowling difficulties quickly is paramount.

While bowling success cannot be measured purely in hauls and averages alone, the alarmingly low percentage of milestones figures in opposed conditions goes a fair way to painting the picture of Johnson’s hardships away from the comforts of pace and bounce.