Mitchell Johnson holds the keys as to whether Australia or India reach Cricket World Cup final

Osman Samiuddin explains why Mitchell Johnson could hold the key to whether Australia reach the Cricket World Cup final or not.

Mitchell Johnson in action for Australia during the World Cup quarter-final win over Pakistan. Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

Dennis Lillee and some Australians would have already known, but most of the world saw the future on September 16, 2006. It was being scripted, of all places, in rainy Kuala Lumpur, in a long-forgotten tri-series between India, Australia and West Indies.

On that evening, Mitchell Johnson burst through the Indian top order, reducing them to 35 for five before rain washed out the match. Johnson took four wickets in four overs, in what would become typical style. Two right-handed batsmen, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar no less, out chasing wide deliveries and two left-handers defeated much more comprehensively.

The surface was slippery, there was movement and he was super quick. He looked exactly as Lillee had promised, a once-in-a-generation bowler. Ever since has been, in a way, the age of Johnson. Alongside Dale Steyn and maybe James Anderson, he has probably been the pre-eminent fast bowler and one of its most durable.

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It has been, in no particular order, a sensational, middling, terrible and exceptional career. Some days Johnson has looked every bit as good as he did that evening. On others he has looked unrecognisable, in a bad way, while on others still, he has looked unrecognisable but in a good way. As with Steyn and Anderson, though, one-day internationals (ODI) have not been the format where we have been able to fully appreciate and celebrate his bowling, which should not to be taken the wrong way, for he has an outstanding record in ODIs, one that checks all the boxes. He concedes less than five runs an over, strikes just about every five overs and has picked up wickets cheaply in general.

But, as for the other two, the problem is the format, not his bowling. It is too limited, too tilted against bowlers to allow for his full impact. At this cricket World Cup Johnson has been overshadowed by Mitchell Starc.

He has not bowled badly as much as Starc has been outstanding, still, it has been strange to see a bowler who had such a hold on the game’s imagination through the end of 2013 and start of last year not be Australia’s go-to guy.

As well as the format, it may well also be the kind of comedown that has generally followed the peaks of his career. Remember that even in his past five Tests, since the end of his extraordinary run in South Africa last year, he has taken 19 wickets, respectably rather than extraordinarily.

He has not been bad, it is just the intensity has dropped and with it the fear he strikes in batsmen. But there have been warning signs in this World Cup, a reminder that when it does go wrong with Johnson, it goes very wrong. First there was that astonishing charge by Brendon McCullum in Auckland, which meant that in a very low-scoring game, Johnson went for 68 runs in six overs, figures out of place in even a high-scoring game.

Perhaps he should not have been opening the bowling then. But even in his more accustomed first change role, Tillakaratne Dilshan did him the indignity of hitting six fours off one of his overs. A year ago, such attacks were unthinkable.

Just as unthinkable is that in a tournament lit up by some riveting short-pitched bowling, hitherto the possessor of the world’s most ferocious bouncer has not been so prominent.

Against batsmen of India's calibre, Australia will need Johnson to be that Johnson. Even in his present respectable form, they might not tear him apart; India's strategy is to be steady and build to a frightening crescendo, so Johnson may well come out with respectable figures. That might not be enough for Australia, though. For that, Johnson will have to explode, much as he did that night in Kuala Lumpur.

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