16 Interesting facts about Mitchell Johnson - Fast, Furious and Fired

16 Interesting facts about Mitchell Johnson – Fast, Furious and Fired: The Aussie speedster Mitchell Johnson is a strike bowler for his team bowling left-arm-fast. The Australian cricket team heavily depends upon him for his brilliant bowling skills and ability to swing the bowl both ways. Mitchell Johnson is also known for his hard hitting batting skills down the order. In his 71-Test career he has already got 1 century and 11 fifties under his kitty. All in all, he is extremely valuable asset for Australia across all formats of the game.

Mitchell Johnson has played 71 Test matches and has 306 wickets to his credit with 12 five-wicket hauls and 3 ten-wicket hauls (in a match) as well. Johnson is a prolific fast bowler in one-dayers chipping in 239 wickets in just 153 ODIs that he played so far. The CricTracker brings you top 10 interesting facts about Mitchell Johnson.

1. Childhood:

Johnson was born on November 2, 1981 and raised in Townsville, Queensland.

2. First Love:

Apparently, cricket was not his preferred sport in his childhood. He happened to play Tennis and idolized Pete Sampras. In fact, at the age of 14 he was offered the opportunity to move to Brisbane so as pursue his Tennis career but turned it down. It was at the age of 17 that he decided to give up on his childhood dream of being a professional Tennis player and began focusing on cricket.

3. Lillee’s Love and Blessings

At the age of 17, when he actually started professional cricket, Dennis Lillee recognised his talent and selected him for Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide. He played for the Australian Under-19 side that toured England in 1999 but was always troubled by injuries. Two years later, he made his debut in first-class cricket and was in the Australia A team that toured Pakistan in 2005.

4. Mitch Arrives:

It was still early days for Mitchell Johnson and in just his seventh ODI, he destroyed the star-studded Indian line up and took 4 wickets taking the scalps of  Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan. He generated genuine pace and prodigious swing and announced himself on the international circuit.

5. Successful Test Debut

Mitchell Johnson successfully created impact in his maiden test against Sri Lanka in 2007 claiming a total of 4 wickets in the match.

6.Initial Struggle:

In an Australian team consisting of Glenn Mcgrath, Brett Lee and Shaun Tait, Johnson was not the preferred choice. He had to resort to driving a plumbing van as well but soon after the retirement of McGrath in 2007, he became a regular in the side.

7. The Fierce Mitchy:

Mitchell Johnson was a prominent member of the side since 2007 but there weren’t many credible performances to his name till then. But he changed all that when he produced superb performances against the Proteas both home and away.  In the first Test against South Africa in December 2008, Johnson took 7 wickets for just 12 runs, to reduce the tourists from 234/3 to 241/8. He ended with 8/61 the next day. Later, when the Kangaroos toured South Africa, Johnson was named the Man of the Series, with 16 wickets and over 250 runs in 3 matches.

8. Form Slump:

In 2009, Ashes tour, when Johnson was named as the spearhead of the Aussie attack, he disappointed everyone with his poor bowling and lack of control. He returned figure of  3/200 in the second Test at Lords and was disappointed as the first change bowler in the subsequent matches.

9. English Jibes:

Later in 2009, when England toured Australia, Johnson was at the receiving end of jibes from the famous Barmy Army of England and was mediocre with his bowling performances as England went on to win the series and retain the Ashes.

10. Injury Prone:

When Johnson was already struggling to retain his place in the side, he had a toe injury which kept him out of the game for some time. He arrived brilliantly and performed well against Sri Lanka but couldn’t carry on against India and was dropped from the team.

11. Johnson 2.0:

After being out of the game for about one and a half years, Johnson was at his best during 2013-14, when in successive series he troubled the English and South African batsmen with his pace and aggression. In those eight Tests, he collected 59 wickets at 15.23. Wearing a mustache reminiscent of Lillee, he delivered a series of fast-bowling spells that are cherished till now. Johnson intimidated the England’s batsmen with his bouncer and made them look seriously uncomfortable and was the Player of the Series as Australia won the Ashes 5-0. This was the peak of Mitchell Johnson’s topsy-turvy career.

12. World Cup Success:

Mitchell Johnson played a key role in the semi-final and final matches of ICC World Cup 2015 and added the World Cup winners medal in his bag as Australia lifted the trophy.

13. Another Slump in Form:

Sadly, after that superlative performance against England, Johnson couldn’t be that Mitch again in his career. He did produce some important contributions later in his career, but he did not have the same impact.

14. Awards and Honors:

• Mitchell Johnson has received several awards and recognition for his astonishing cricketing skills. He received ICC Cricketer of the Year award twice; in 2009 and 2014.
• He is one of the only two to have won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.
• He also won the Allan Border Medal in 2014.
• Johnson won 9 Man-of-the-match (MOM) awards and 2 Man-of-the-series (MOS) trophies in test matches. Johnson also got 6 MoMs in his ODI career and 1 MoM in T20 as well.

15. Nicknames

Johnson got quite a few nicknames including Midge, Notch and many others. Recently, Josh Hazlewood has coined a new name for Johnson, “Ol Man River” for his decade-long association with the Australian national cricket team.

Also Read – 14 Most Deadly fast bowlers in the history of Cricket

16. Personal Life:

Mitchell Johnson is married to former model and karate black belt Jessica Bratich Johnson. They have a daughter named Rubika Ann.

Post Co-Authored by Kunal Karanjkar