Ol' Man River to keep on rolling

Mitchell Johnson may be Australia's most experienced active Test cricketer but is eager to shrug off the jibes and prove a point to his younger rivals.

Johnson revealed he had been labelled "Ol' Man River" by Josh Hazlewood and fellow members of the Fast Bowlers' Cartel, but Johnson, who will turn 34 shortly before the first Test against New Zealand, has taken the sledge with good grace.

Johnson is the proud owner of Baggy Green cap number 398 and made his Test debut in 2007 against Sri Lanka. He's the last of the "300 club" – Peter Siddle owns cap No.403 and Steve Smith No.415.

"I'm one of the old guys now," Johnson joked on Wide World of Sports. "They call me Ol' Man River."

A history of Mitch Johnson milestones

Johnson, with 71 Tests and 306 Test wickets, is taking things easy in the build up to a big homer summer. He has been rested from the Qantas Tour of Bangladesh and will not feature in the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup.

The lack of scheduled cricket raises the possibility Johnson could be named to appear against the visiting New Zealanders in one or both of the Prime Minister's XI or CA XI squads for warm-up matches ahead of the three-Test Commonwealth Bank series.

Johnson has been keeping a close eye on the Black Caps progress and is under no illusions about the challenge the Australians will face at home.

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Johnson's best against NZ is 6-73 at Hamilton in 2010 // Getty

"We're coming up against New Zealand who have been playing really good cricket the past two years," Johnson said.

"They've got a ton of experience now, but look, we're confident.

"We're all about playing good, aggressive, hard cricket and hopefully we'll be able to do that this summer."

As a senior figure in the Australian team now, Johnson will certainly be ensuring the side don't repeat the mistakes of the Ashes, where the pace spearhead said overconfidence had contributed to their downfall.

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Johnson and the Fast Bowlers' Cartel during the Ashes // Getty

"I thought we had a better side," Johnson said of Australia's 3-2 loss to England that relinquished their hold on the Ashes urn.

"I think after that second test at Lord's (where Australia won by 405 runs) we were probably a little bit overconfident maybe.

Johnson's thunderbolts at Lord's

"They outperformed us in certain areas but they sort of played very similar cricket to what we did – one team would dominate and the other team would fold. It was a very strange series."

Former skipper Michael Clarke, who retired after the Ashes series, said eliminating inconsistency away from home remained Australia's toughest challenge.

"(The Ashes) was extremely inconsistent from both parties," Clarke said on Wide World of Sports.

"You look at the way we played at Lord's and The Oval, we really outplayed England in those two Test matches. Unfortunately in the other three it was the opposite.

"As a team we spoke before the West Indies and England about being more consistent away from home and I think that will still be our greatest challenge as an Australian team moving forward."