Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has insisted he is relishing the role of being the man English crowds love to hate. Johnson was subjected to prolonged vocal abuse as England won the third Ashes Test by eight wickets inside three days at Birmingham's Edgbaston ground to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
While it may not have been quite as vicious as during England's 2009 series win, when Johnson had to cope with chants about his family as well as a derogatory song which mocks him for bowling left and right, it was certainly sustained and reached something of a crescendo on Friday's final day at Edgbaston. Now Johnson is bracing himself for more of the same at Nottingham's Trent Bridge, where the fourth Test starts on Thursday.
But at the age of 33, the left-arm paceman regards the barracking as a "compliment" and said the way in which he had stopped his run and then bowled from beside the umpire on Friday were his way of responding to the taunts, rather than a sign that spectators had got to him. "I get amongst it a bit more now," Johnson told travelling Australian media in Nottingham on Tuesday. "When the whole crowd is cheering my name at the end of a game - when they (England) have just won - you have to take that as a compliment ... where I did stop in my run-up was deliberate to try and have a bit of fun with the crowd."
Johnson added: "I definitely feel like I can take the brunt of it and I take the focus away from the other guys and I've really embraced that role. "When you're walking with your family in the street, I think it's a bit overboard. But on the field, I think that's fair game ... I'm all for it."
When England beat Australia by just 14 runs in a dramatic first Test of the 2013 Ashes at Trent Bridge, it was Stuart Broad who became the 'hate figure' for Australian fans when he didn't 'walk' for what seemed an obvious edge to the slips and was given not out by the umpire.
Even though most Australians don't 'walk', paceman Broad became public enemy number one 'Down Under' and was targeted by crowds during England's 5-0 series loss in Australia in 2013/14. "I enjoy the rivalry. I like the banter that flies around," Broad told reporters on Tuesday. "You need those villain-type characters to get the crowd going. Mitch (Johnson) is obviously the Aussie who gets it from the English crowd. "Every time he comes on to bowl everyone goes back to their seats because they want to see how he bowls, how he reacts to the crowd and the crowd to fire up. "It does the same for me in Australia. Every time I came on to bowl I got a lively reception. It is something I have gone through, quite enjoyed. It is not often you get booed by 60,000 people and it is something I can tell the grandkids."
Johnson produced arguably the two most dramatic deliveries of the current series in England's first innings at Edgbaston when he struck twice in three balls to dismiss Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes with two sharply rising throat balls the England batsmen could only glove behind to wicket-keeper Peter Nevill. Yet such hostility was not forthcoming from Johnson in the rest of the match. "I don't know. I guess from my point of view I was just trying to really dry up the runs and I probably just lost that bit of aggression," Johnson said.
Comments
Comments are closed.