Australia’s Mitchell Johnson must continue growing as a bowler to reach greatness

Dale Steyn and Jimmy Anderson are examples of how fast bowlers can thrive in adverse conditions, writes Osman Samiuddin

Mitchell Johnson of Australia bowls during Day 1 of the First Test against Pakistan at Dubai International Stadium on October 22, 2014 in Dubai. Ryan Pierse / Getty Images

Great fast bowlers find a way to adjust after injuries, like Dennis Lillee did after his back gave way.

They learn to eke out careers on surfaces that give them nothing, like Imran Khan and Wasim Akram did.

They find a way to thrive in countries they are not used to, like Richard Hadlee and Malcolm Marshall did.

A few years ago, when Dale Steyn was still the support act to guys like Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock and even Andre Nel, he learnt how to bowl.

He found a surface in Karachi that had defeated every kind of bowler, so he upped his pace, pushed his length fuller, extracted all he could out of both new and old ball, brought in some variations and took five wickets in the second innings.

It set up South Africa’s first win on the subcontinent (not including Bangladesh) in more than seven years and set them off on what remains modern cricket’s most impressive stretch: South Africa are unbeaten in an away series since 2006.

It also marked the true arrival for Steyn, from which moment he became the Steyn we now know.

In 2012, James Anderson came to the UAE and discovered that the ball does not hoop as it might at Trent Bridge. He learnt.

England were whitewashed, but Anderson was magnificent, brutally unfortunate to end with only nine wickets for the series.

When he went to India later that year, faced with broadly similar conditions, he was just as magnificent and, this time, helped England win the series.

Steyn is a modern great. Anderson suffers for being one of the poster boys of an unpopular England side, but he is a threat in almost any conditions.

Steyn may be the superior, but Anderson is not far behind.

It is these two who must provide the necessary point of reference for Mitchell Johnson, world cricket’s most acclaimed – and thrilling – fast bowler in this past year.

But he remains unproven in the conditions he faces in the UAE. Johnson had a good first Test in Dubai, or rather, a good first innings. His pace was up. The control was good, too. In some spells, he was smart.

Younis Khan cited his first morning and early afternoon spells as particularly challenging ones. But overall, the threat felt damp, like Pakistan had managed to throw a big wet blanket over a raging ­inferno.

Pakistan’s approach, to play him off and take no risks, paid dividends.

His figures – three for 39 from 31 overs – are outstanding, but in Pakistan’s 454 the effect of them was not felt.

Pakistan did not look especially put out by him; occasionally troubled and harried, but not overawed.

Sometimes it feels, if you scan Australia’s recent record in this region, what they really need is for Johnson to become the bowler here that he is elsewhere.

That is what they have needed – but have not got, curiously – from several of their spearheads.

A few years ago, Australia wanted much the same from Brett Lee. They never got it because Lee never really found a way; only 13 of his 310 Test wickets were taken on the subcontinent and, at an average of 56, came at an exorbitant cost.

Even the great Lillee could never quite crack it (six wickets in his four Tests in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a wicket every 22 overs).

Before the first Test, Johnson was averaging nearly 43 from 10 Tests in the subcontinent. He had gone at more than three runs an over and was taking one wicket about every 13 overs. Through those series in India and Sri Lanka, he looked every bit those numbers.

The head-scrambling hurry, the venom that he has found in Australia, has been absent. He has never had the kind of skills that Steyn and Anderson, among others, have had. His wrist is set up so differently to those two that he will not ever be able to do with the ball what they do.

He does not weave intricate, far-reaching webs around batsmen. Even last year, he came at England and South Africa with a hammer. It was exhilarating and spectacular, not clever and not any less effective for it on those ­surfaces.

But clever – or cleverer – is what he has to be here if he and Australia are to break through their regional rut.

Adjustments in length, pace and angles, more out of both new and old ball, more dimensions; he has to find a way, starting in Abu Dhabi, where he could get even less help from the pitch than in Dubai.

The good news for Johnson is that he looked better in Dubai than he ever has in this part of the world.

The bad news is, he is going to have to be better.

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