In a day and age where the cricketers around the world are boldly defying their respective cricket boards to be able to participate in T20 club cricket, Mitchell Johnson has refused to take part in the Big Bash league T20 tournament coming December. Johnson has instead decided to focus all his attention to the forthcoming international series against Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand and South Africa.
Mitchell Johnson To Give Big Bash League T20 A Miss
Johnson’s decision is in line with his previous decisions when he had skipped the Indian Premier League in all the four editions to be able to focus on resting and preserving his body for international tournaments.
Johnson was expected to be one of the spearheads of the Australian pace bowling department after the departures of Glen McGrath and Jason Gillespie, but he hasn’t been able to live up to that early promise. Although Johnson averages less than 30 with the ball, he is prone to erratic spells where he has totally lost control, which in turn, has led to the captain having to look elsewhere for control.
Johnson was in the danger of being dropped from the side for the entire series after a ghastly 0/170 in the first Ashes Test match last season, but had come back strongly to pick up nine wickets in the third to help Australia win the game. He followed it up with another poor return of 2/134 before rounding the Ashes off with a four-wicket haul. The experts had deemed his performance as one of those responsible for the Ashes rout.
Even in the World Cup that followed, Johnson started off with a four-wicket haul in each of the first two games that he played, against Zimbabwe and New Zealand, but followed up with another two wickets at an average of 74.
Johnson explained his decision not to play the Big Bash League T20, “At the moment I've decided not to sign with any of the Twenty20 sides. The Scorchers approached me and at the moment I'm just happy to focus on the summer coming up.”
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