Which Mitchell will show up at the MCG?
As the Ashes builds up to a Boxing Day crescendo Mike Selvey in the Guardian asks if Mitchell Johnson, chief destroyer at Perth, can repeat his heroics.
Sahil Dutta
25-Feb-2013
As the Ashes builds up to a Boxing Day crescendo Mike Selvey in the Guardian asks if Mitchell Johnson, chief destroyer at Perth, can repeat his heroics.
It will be a surprise if Johnson can repeat his trickery at the MCG. Fully enclosed grounds can create their own micro-climate, but as with the Gabba it is not renowned as a swinging ground but rather one that can seam while the ball is new, and perhaps reverse swings later. The danger for England's batsmen now, though, is that because of the potential, there will be a temptation to want to play deliveries that until now their gameplan has been to avoid. It is a mindset they will do well to avoid although one it will be hard to avoid.
Lawrence Booth picks up a similar theme for the first of his 10 Ashes questions that need answering in the Wisden Cricketer blog.
Which one is the real Mitchell Johnson? The butt of Barmy Army jokes and songs who bombed in Brisbane, or the purveyor of panic who prospered in Perth? You suspect not even Johnson knows. And that in itself may unsettle England, who will have to work out pretty quickly in Melbourne whether they can leave everything alone outside off stump as per the Gabba. If Johnson swings it at the MCG without the aid of the elements, England could be in trouble.
Among the wreckage of England’s first innings at Perth, Ian Bell stood tall.Gareth Davies in the Daily Telegraph thinks Bell’s hardcore preparation might have something to do with it.
In the first three matches, the Warwickshire batsman has made 213 runs at an average of 71. Some of this success could have been because he was “put through hell” by a cagefighter. At least that is the verdict of Barrington Patterson, the 45-year-old professional fighter and trainer who is regarded as one of Britain’s hardest men. “He’s more aggressive, more ruthless, now,” insisted Patterson, an 18-stone heavyweight cage fighter and kick-boxer.
Richard Hinds in the Sydney Morning Herald looks at the sledging war that ignited at Perth and says Australia have rediscovered their nasty edge after the media uproar that followed their controversial victory over India in 2008.
The Australian cricket team was, up until the New Year's Test of 2008, a snarling, attacking, vicious, sledging machine. A combination in which any deficiency with bat or ball could be overcome with well-aimed invective, profanity-laden wit or, in extreme circumstances, a poke in the ribs for a batsman who entered the vast no-go zone around an Aussie quick's pointy elbows. The greats of the golden era had gone. Yet a far more important component of that rampant team remained - the malevolent soul that ensured the ends always justified being mean. Then, thanks to the carping of those squeamish do-gooders in the Members Stand and the media, it all went wrong.
Sahil Dutta is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo