I just lost that hunger in the end to play on those tough days: Mitchell Johnson

I just lost that hunger in the end to play on those tough days: Mitchell Johnson: It was totally unexpected for the world of cricket to see Mitchell Johnson announcing his retirement. The 34-year-old left arm pacer, in a recent interview, exclaimed that he had simply lost the hunger to play the game. Watching a player like Johnson, who has always been known for his aggression on the field, losing his competitiveness in the game is certainly a big news for everyone.

Johnson explained that the sudden decision, which came on the penultimate day of the Perth test, was as a result of his disappointing figures of 1-157 in the first innings of the match. “I just lost that hunger in the end to play on those tough days,” he quoted. He had not been in the best of forms and this certainly did not do any good to his plans of playing more.

“That was something I used to really enjoy about Test cricket was those challenges of those difficult days out there, but I just wasn’t enjoying it”, said the 4^th highest wicket taker for Australia. Well, his hunger was evident enough during the Ashes tour of 2013-14 when his thunderbolt bouncers had troubled the English batsman all through the tour. Johnson ended the tour with a total of 37 scalps helping Australia make a clean sweep. He still regards that phase of his cricket career as his best. “That was definitely a huge moment in my career,” he said.

The times changed and so did the fortunes. Neither could he find the same form in test cricket nor could he torment the batsman the way he used to in the limited overs. In fact, he even had a horrifying outing at the Indian Premier League this year where he had tasted success in the previous edition.

“I felt I couldn’t compete at this level any more – on those tough days I didn’t want to be there.”

It was evident enough that the Test Player of the Year 2014, Mitch Johnson was struggling. In the WACA test itself, he could manage just 3 wickets in the two innings that he bowled. On the other hand, Starc made news by bowling the fastest test delivery and picking up 4 wickets in the first innings.

In addition to this, he also explained that the death of team-mate Phil Hughes on the field had a lot to do with his mental condition. All these little things added up to this final call of retiring at the age of 34.

“It was a little bit physical, but it was more the mental side of things, I had just had enough”, he added. Johnson also hinted that he had actually given it a thought after the nations world cup win earlier this year but decided to prolong his career. But the heavy demands of the game eventually made him take this call.

Johnson ended his final innings with 2-20. “They were the sort of wickets I’ve been getting for the last couple of years, I really wanted to rip a couple in and the body let me do it,” said Johnson after the match.

No matter what the reason was, one thing is for sure that Cricket definitely will miss the fiery fast bowler. “There is a fair bit of emotion when the boys picked me up. It has been great. I have really enjoyed myself. I can walk off and be proud of my career”, quoted Johnson who had the best bowling figures of 8-61 against South Africa in 2008 at the same venue, WACA, Perth.

Johnson finished with the a high being the 9^th ranked player in the ICC test bowlers rankings.

Former Test cricketers from around the world took to Twitter to praise Johnson.