Australian Test great Dennis Lillee is confident Mitchell Johnson is mentally and physically ready for another Ashes showdown, but says James Pattinson should be the team’s “go-to” bowler.
Johnson was the pick of Australia’s bowlers in the third Test against South Africa in Perth, with the 31-year-old displaying a new-found consistency to go with his trademark pace.
It’s a far cry from his performances against the Proteas in November last year, when Johnson was so low on confidence that his bowling action started deteriorating.
Lillee has worked closely with Johnson this year to help the 31-year-old enter the second phase of his bowling career.
Instead of blasting out batsmen with pure pace and venom, Lillee has taught Johnson to become a smarter bowler.
The results have been good so far, and Lillee is keen to see Johnson in action when the Ashes gets underway in England next year.
“I don’t think there’ll be any scars there. I think he can go there with this new role and do it very well. I don’t think there’ll be any mental issues,” said Lillee, who snared 355 wickets during a glittering 70-Test career.
“His job is no longer to blast them out.
“When he was trying to blast them out, he was muscling, and falling, and pushing, and his action went to pieces.
“In this Test, we’ve rarely seen that wide one that we saw in the last 18 months that he played.
“I think he’s got it under control.”
But while Lillee views Johnson as a key cog in Australia’s pace attack, he sees Pattinson as the future leader.
Pattinson is likely to miss the rest of the summer due to a side strain, but has already shown in his seven Tests how dangerous he can be, with the 22-year-old snaring 31 wickets at 22.09.
“I guess this attack at the moment, you probably can’t say there’s a go-to man,” Lillee said in reference to Mitchell Starc, John Hastings, Johnson and Shane Watson.
“I’m not being unfair on them. I just think they’re all around that 135, 140km an hour mark.
“There’s not a guy there like a Dale Steyn that can go up and down a gear.
“All good attacks have that one go-to person … that can break it open.
“Pattinson looks a very good prospect to me. If he can stay fit and stay on the park, then he looks like a good bowler.”
Meanwhile, Lillee said the planned redevelopment of the WACA, in which about 500 apartments would be built inside the ground’s perimeter, was needed in order to save cricket at the iconic venue.
Stage one of construction could start as early as March next year, but WACA chairman David Williams said the bid to increase the ground’s capacity to 28,000 down the track would depend on State government funding.
