Swing key as Johnson roars again

Even if Mitchell Johnson's fiery burst at England on day two at Lord's drew comparisons with his series-defining spell on the corresponding day at Brisbane in 2013, the bowler himself felt it was just another day at the office.

Lord's was a place of unfinished business for Johnson, following his horrid display here in 2009, but it is his more robust mental approach and greater consistency that he was able to prosper this afternoon. While Johnson struggled for wickets in Cardiff, he did not think he was far away. At Lord's that confidence was borne out by a spell that had him ripping through Gary Ballance and, most importantly, Joe Root.

"I've felt like the 2013-2014 me since that day really," he said of Brisbane a little under two years ago. "Nothing has changed for me. I feel like since then I've bowled really well throughout that period. There has been times where I've been a bit flat maybe and haven't bowled 150 clicks but I'm still trying to hit the wicket hard and bowl a good rhythm.

"The ball has been swinging over here which has been amazing. When the ball is swinging at good pace it makes it more difficult. I don't feel like a lot has changed for me, to be honest. You come up in different conditions against different players. The thing that I enjoyed about my training here was I was able to get out there in the middle and bowl a fair bit. I did that the other day and that gave me a lot of confidence coming into this Test.

"Knowing that I've done the work and I've bowled here - yeah it probably wasn't my best performance but I've grown a lot since then and I've bowled on a lot of different wickets that haven't suited my bowling. I felt like I bowled well in the first Test so I wasn't thinking about anything else but going out there and doing the best job that I can for my country. It's nice to have those runs on the board when you go out there as a bowler. It definitely helps with the confidence side of things."

Bowling with plenty of runs to defend made a big difference to Australia's attack but also to England's batsmen, who had heavier legs from near enough to two days of chasing balls struck by Chris Rogers and Steven Smith. Johnson said that his team-mates had also worked in more effective partnerships in the 29 overs they had in the run up to stumps.

"I don't think we bowled well in partnerships throughout that first Test," he said. "That's what the difference probably was, here we were able to work together as a team and get the ball up there nice and full and straight. That's probably the big difference as well. I guess when there's a few runs on the board it gives the team a bit of confidence and we were able to go out there and play aggressive cricket, which is the way we normally play.

"You've always got to be confident that you can get something out of the wicket. I wasn't concerned about seeing all the runs that were scored. When you do see runs on the board it does give you confidence as a bowling group. We had a few overs at them so we were just out there to try and get a few quick wickets. We were able to do that.

"I find that in these conditions here, the overcast conditions, the ball definitely swings. But also we were able to use the slope as well. I know when I went out there to bat today and Mark Wood was bowling, the ball wasn't swinging but just going down that slope … it felt like it was a bit different to a normal wicket. Once that ball stops swinging for us, we've got to be smart and use the slope."

As for England, Johnson enjoyed the fact the batsmen felt compelled by their new spirit of aggression to go after the ball even as it was new and swinging. Root's dismissal, trying to play a forcing shot before he had his bearings, showed how some days it will work for the young Yorkshireman and others it will not.

"We were hoping they were going to come out and play their aggressive brand that they've been talking about," Johnson said. "We hope they come out tomorrow and do the same thing. Stokes is a very aggressive player anyway. We'd like to see him play some shots tomorrow morning and hopefully we can get a couple of quick wickets in the morning.

"It's day two, there's a lot of hard work in this Test for us. We're one-nil down in the series but we've definitely got that confidence at the moment with the runs and a few early wickets but we just need to keep working hard at it."