Mitchell Johnson: Australia's Most Important Player at 2015 Cricket World Cup
When running your eyes over Australia's wealth of talent, it can often be difficult to identify who exactly is the star attraction. Particularly in the one-day side, a group at the summit of the game's rankings that features an ominous array of dynamic and compelling individuals.
But if you're ever unsure of the identity of the nation's most sought-after and admired star, there's always one way to work it out: watch who the broadcasters want to talk to.
On Monday, down on the banks of the Yarra River outside Melbourne's Crown Casino, Fox Sports launched the company's coverage of the 2015 Cricket World Cup with two Australian players present: Mitchell Johnson and Steven Smith.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
If you weren't already certain, there was the answer: Johnson and Smith, right now, sit atop Australia's pecking order as drawcards. No. 1 and No. 2. The others, even Michael Clarke at present, fall into line after them.
Johnson, however, the ferocious left-armer, still holds sway—just. He's still the most captivating talent in the Australian side. A man of both bristling confidence and curious contradictions. A wonderful, yet paradoxical, fast bowler who remains the most absorbing individual in Australian cricket to watch. The guy who delivered that stretch of bowling a year ago.
He's also his country's key figure for the imminent World Cup to be played on home soil.
"I feel like I'm in a really good situation now where I've freshened up and I know where I'm at with my game," Johnson told Fox Sports, per The Daily Telegraph, alluding to the one-month break from the game he enjoyed after the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
That layoff wasn't the first time the 33-year-old had been allowed to get away from cricket briefly in the current Australian summer. After the pair of one-day meetings with South Africa in Perth in November, the speedster was given almost a month to prepare for the Test series against India.
"We had Zimbabwe, UAE, obviously these two here, it's just to freshen him up and make sure he's right to go for the summer," coach Darren Lehmann said at the time, per ESPN Cricinfo.
It's why the ongoing summer has been a little stop-start for the left-armer. Australia are very aware of the need to preserve his body, to prolong his vitality. A fresh Johnson is a fearsome Johnson—something he hasn't always been in recent months.
As he prepared to make his return in the recent triangular series, England's tormentor of 2013-14 admitted his pace had "dropped off a little bit." He also hadn't been hesitant in expressing his disappointment at the uncharacteristically lifeless pitches on offer for much of the Test campaign against India.
But that's now behind him. Only the high-impact, one-day game awaits him in the immediate future—exactly the setting needed to recapture the explosiveness that had tailed off since the tour of South Africa early last year.
"I would think he'd be fine now with that sort of break, I'm excited to see how he's bowling," Lehmann said in late January, per ESPN Cricinfo. "Hopefully he's back to full fitness and full pace."
Johnson is confident he is, confident that he has "freshened up."
Figures of 3/27 and 2/26 in his first two outings following his latest break suggest so, too.
For Australia's opponents, the signs from the fast bowler's two recent performances in Perth and Adelaide should serve as a warning: Johnson is approaching his best once more.
In the space of 10 balls, he ripped the heart out of England's top order in the final of the triangular series with the wickets of James Taylor, Moeen Ali and Eoin Morgan across two overs.
Watching an England captain have his off-stump removed at more than 90 mph was both ominous and an alarming case of deja vu.
And that performance continued a trend: When Johnson fires, Australia are close to unbeatable in the 50-over game.
| Johnson 2+ Wickets | 66 | 53 | 12 | 1 |
| Johnson 4+ Wickets | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 |
Indeed, the above table makes for compelling reading regarding the left-armer's influence on his nation's one-day side. When he takes two or more wickets, Australia win just under 81 percent of the time—81. And on the 11 occasions in which he's claimed four or more in this format, the men in green and gold have lost just once.
It's a staggering record. A mightily impressive one for both Johnson and his team.
When he's in his groove, look out. Though it's not automatically game over, it's not far from it; opponents have roughly a 19 percent chance of winning.
But at a World Cup, with wickets that favour him, on grounds with enormous boundaries, inside colossal arenas urging him on, that number might be lower. Much lower.
It leaves Johnson standing as a decisive trump card for the hosts. Though David Warner can set games up with the bat, though Smith can anchor the innings, though Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh and Shane Watson can string together towering strikes in a hurry, Johnson, at his best, can win matches in the space of minutes. He can, at his most devastating, effectively end a contest in two overs.
One lethal spell and the game is gone. Just ask England.
In "a really good situation" in which he's "freshened up," Johnson enters this World Cup as Australia's key man; the nation's biggest star.
The broadcaster just reinforced it.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
