Mitchell Johnson also has serious ambition of opening Aus batting in ODIs

Saturday, October 24, 2009

'I'll target best batsmen'

Besides breaking bones and splitting batsman’s chin (ask Jacques Kallis), he also takes bagsful of wickets. Despite being in the enemy’s camp, he still makes for a compelling viewing, such is the talent and appeal of Australia’s latest poster boy — Mitchell Johnson. Just ahead of the 2009 India-Australia ODI series, Johnson — the ICC international cricketer of the year — talks to Anupam Pratihary about his pace bowling, batting ambitions and much more…

First and foremost, where do you generate so much of pace from?

I have got a bit of a slingy action and I guess that is probably where I generate my pace from. Each fast bowler does it differently. Brett Lee sort of puts his front leg and catapults over and that’s how he generates his pace from.

How do you adapt and bowl on a pitch that is not responsive enough, especially on Indian tracks?

On Indian pitches, one needs to bowl a lot of change of pace. It’s all about change-ups I think and you can’t afford to give width to batsmen. One has to bowl a lot of leg-cutters and off-cutters and occasional bouncers as well. And if the pitch is not responding at all then may be use the conditions and try and get swing early in the innings.

Mitchell Johnson had dismissed Sachin Tendulkar a few times in the last series and will be eyeing for his wicket again. © Getty

Aussie bowlers are known to target a particular batsman in a series. Will you be targeting any batsman in this series?

I’m not targeting any particular batsman in this series but obviously I’ll try to get the best players out. Sehwag will be back and then Sachin and Yuvraj are the two other batsmen that I’d like to dismiss. It will be nice to get the wickets of the top order batsmen. Last time around, I had dismissed Sachin a few times, so I’d like to do that again but I don’t know how it will work out, as bowling to Sachin is always a challenge.

Do you consider yourself an all-rounder or just a fast bowler who enjoys batting?

I’d like to believe that I’m an all-rounder. I want to contribute with the bat every time I get an opportunity. However, there is no fear that my batting will affect bowling because bowling will always be my no. 1 priority. But I also work very hard at my batting. I know it’s added pressure but at the moment I’m quite enjoying it. There will be occasions when I’ll get runs and there will be occasions when I won’t, but at the moment I’m really enjoying it.

Any particular position you’d like to bat?

Well, in a Test match, I’d like to continue batting at no 8. But in the ODIs and Twenty20 I’d like to open for Australia. I know it’s going to be a little tough doing both. It’s tough also because there are guys who are doing a fantastic job as openers and it would be difficult to replace them, but whenever there’s an opportunity I’d surely put my hands up for opening the innings. Earlier, I’ve batted higher in the order and I feel if an opportunity arises I can deliver.

What went wrong in the last Ashes series where you were struggling to bowl?

Well, there was a lot of pressure and expectations from the team. Moreover, I had also put a bit of pressure on myself. I’m a kind of bowler who wants to bowl every ball perfectly and when it doesn’t happen then I get very annoyed. I wasn’t getting wickets and then people started talking all kinds of things, which kind of added to the pressure.

How did you come out of it?

I tried to keep my bowling simple and continued to bowl fast. I’m glad it worked out after a while.

And now you are raring to go against the Indians?

I guess so. In my last trip I did pick up a few wickets, so I’ll try and do that again and help my team win.