IPL 2016: Mitchell Johnson feels gruelling net-sessions have helped him a lot lately

Australian fast-bowler Mitchell Johnson retired from international cricket last November. He announced his retirement after Australia’s second Test against New Zealand in Perth because he felt he was not fit to compete at the highest level any longer.

Johnson joined the Kings XI Punjab earlier this month to play in the IPL, and would have expected to deliver for his team, since he had played a bit of club cricket in Perth after giving up international cricket, and looked in good touch.

However, Kings XI Punjab have had a forgetful season this year, winning just 3 out of their 10 games. They are placed right at the bottom of the table with no chances of qualifying for the playoffs. Their foreign bench consisting of the likes of the Maxwells and the Millers has failed to fire so far.

Unfortunately for the 34-year-old, his explosiveness did not come off well in this season of the IPL, with figures of 1-35 and 0-28 in his first two games for Punjab, before he was dropped looking unthreatening on batsmen-friendly pitches.

Johnson was brought back after a short spell in the dug-out but managed figures of 1-43 against Mumbai Indians, after which he has not been a part of starting XI till now. He was frustrated after being dropped, and it did not go down too well with the fierce bowler, but it worked in his stride after the first two weeks.

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

Within two weeks, Johnson rediscovered his lost fire after long net sessions and hard training, and his Punjab teammates had to bear the brunt of his aggression.

“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. 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,” said the fast bowler.

Johnson’s IPL coaches were so driven to get the best out of him, that they went to the extent of asking him if they should literally slap him to fire him up.

“(Punjab bowling coach) 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 pissed off and fired up?’

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

Johnson became too ‘matey’ at the fag end of his career

Johnson admitted he lost some aggression that previously made him a feared bowler – particularly during the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash and the following tour of South Africa — as his career came to a close, becoming too “matey” instead of keeping up his brash attitude.

He also claimed that the new methods of umpiring, where the officials immediately interfere when there is even a slight exchange of words, has caused him to mellow down.

“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.”

The Australian pacer is not sure if he will return to Australian cricket via the Big Bash League, but if he does, he said it would be for his adopted home state with the Perth Scorchers.