'The quickest 30 balls I've ever faced'

It’s a tribute to Mitchell Johnson’s qualities as a man that his former teammates still hold him in such warm esteem despite their enduring memories of the former Test quick consisting of unadulterated, heart-stopping fear.

Johnson is partway through his first Australian summer without a professional cricket contract in 17 years, having announced his retirement from all forms of the game in August.

It’s been five years since the start of the Test campaign that would come to define Johnson’s career, the 2013-14 Ashes series where he physically and mentally disarmed England’s batsmen in a terrifying performance that ranks alongside the greats of Ashes folklore.

And some of Johnson’s ex-Australia teammates have revealed it wasn’t just the left-armer’s international opponents whose batting talents were rendered futile against one of the fastest bowlers of the modern era.

When a batsman defending his wicket and maybe playing some shots was deemed secondary to simply escaping the altercation with all his limbs intact.

“My first memory of Mitch was (when) I was 13th man for Australia … it must have been the 2007 Ashes,” Usman Khawaja recalled recently of the final Test of the 2006-07 summer, when the then 20-year-old up-and-coming batsman shared sub fielding duties with Johnson, a raw Queensland quick on the fringe of the Test team.

“He was 12th man and I was chatting to him and he was really nice. He’d obviously got left out of the side, but he was still a really good bloke.

“And then I think (assistant coach) Jamie Siddons said someone had to go and face him (in the nets).

Image Id: 3C961490089C446EA1F2ABB002051950 Image Caption: Johnson during an Australian training session in 2006 // Getty

“(I said) 'Alright, I've got my gear, I’ll go get it' … I didn't know what I was getting myself into.

“And he bowled the quickest 30 balls that I've faced in my entire life.

“I remember just facing that, absolutely afraid for my life. I’ve never felt like that before or after.

“I was just thinking, ‘Geez, is this how far away I am from first-class and international cricket? If I can't face this, I have no chance’.

“He was bowling with a white ball with a white screen (behind him), bowling no-balls and bowling absolute thunderbolts.

“Honestly, it felt like I was going to get seriously hurt.

“I was just so happy … when I finished the net and everything was fine. And then I was like ‘alright, I'm going to retire because I'm not ready for this’.”

Khawaja’s tale is a familiar one amongst Johnson’s former teammates; of terrifying net sessions where batsmen would do their absolute best just to ensure their body – and their confidence – wasn’t irreparably damaged.

And at times, in the case of Glenn Maxwell, after receiving clear warning from the man himself of impending physical danger.

“We were playing for Kings XI (in the IPL) and he just got told … that he was dropped,” Maxwell recalled to cricket.com.au.

Image Id: B6490D9B93424F2B8AEB9A9D9A25511E Image Caption: Johnson destroyed stumps - and his teammates' confidence - in the IPL // Getty

“I was just about to walk into his net and he told me ‘Don't come in here’. There was nowhere else to go, but he was like ‘Mate, don't come in’.

“(I said) ‘I'm coming in, whatever’.

“First ball I just said ‘Just keep them wide, don't hit me, I'm playing them alright, just give me a break’.

“He said: ‘I can’t guarantee anything’.

“The first ball went flying past me outside off and (I thought) ‘At least it was away from me, that's fine’.

“Next ball – bouncer, straight over my head, almost hit someone behind the net.

“And then next ball – awful length, blew my finger off, I was straight into the changing room, ice on the finger, it was shaking. It was rapid.

“That was what he was like; as soon as he got some bad news during the IPL, he just took it out on anyone, whoever walked into his nets.

“Unfortunately, I was the unlucky one that day.”

But the moustachioed, fire-breathing quick that terrorised England in that memorable summer five years ago belies Johnson’s true nature.

Lovingly referred to as a ‘big brother’ by Nathan Lyon, Johnson is still spoken about in glowing terms by the players who he played with – and terrorised at training – for years.

“He's a terrific bloke,” Khawaja says. “He was such a good bloke, some guy you can always have fun with, grab a coffee with. He's from Queensland, so he's got that bogan in him.

“But he's a legend. I’ve got so much time for Mitchell.”

A legend in more ways than one.