Gareth Batty: It’s so intimidating facing a nasty fasty like Aussie Johnson

Intimidating: Johnson gives Australia an edge

7 September 2015

Mitchell Johnson's performance at Lord’s has had cricket fans wondering whether England have someone up their sleeve who can bowl just as fast.

There are a few players around the county scene with genuine pace — my team-mate Stuart Meaker, Tymal Mills at Sussex and Jamie Overton of Somerset to name three — but apart from them, I can’t think of any genuinely quick bowlers. The lack of very quick bowlers is a problem all over the world.

The amount of cricket we play in England is one of the reasons we don’t produce many of them. It’s physically impossible to bowl regularly at 90mph plus with the schedule we have to follow. Then there are the pitches.

If you look around county cricket, there are a lot of seamer-friendly, result pitches and the counties who produce them never seem to be penalised. When you’re producing wickets like those, or slow, low ones, you’re not encouraging people to bowl rockets.

Why can it be so difficult to face fast bowling? First of all, there is the real threat of injury. That’s why every county wants a nasty fasty because it is intimidating.

As a batsman, your adrenaline is going that much more than usual, so you end up playing at deliveries that you would leave alone when facing an 80mph bowler.

If the guy bowling at 90mph and above can also swing the ball, as Johnson can, then you have the complete package, testing the nerve and the skill of the batsman. It’s pretty difficult stuff. Then, if the guy at the other end is bowling at a slower pace but with real skill, it’s hard for a batsman to adapt.

One over, someone is trying to hit him on the head. The next, he is vulnerable to being out lbw or caught behind or in the slips.

The difficulty for a captain, especially in England, is finding the balance. Grounds here are smaller than in other parts of the world, particularly in county cricket. That’s why bowlers like Johnson and Brett Lee, another very rapid Australian bowler of Ashes series past, have not always been successful here.

Some days, the batting team can be blown away, as happened to England at Lord’s. It feels like there will be a wicket every ball, there are wickets at the other end and the runs dry up.

But if it’s not quite the fast bowler’s day, it can be difficult to defend as a fielding side. The ball travels quickly, nicks fly to the boundary and it is not easy to stem the flow of runs. It’s about finding the balance, which is one of the many skills of captaincy.

Here at Surrey, we have an important week ahead. Wins against Middlesex tomorrow and against Sussex on Friday should send us into the last eight of the NatWest T20 Blast. We’re firmly in contention for promotion and we want to take this form into the Royal London One Day Cup, too. These are exciting times for us.

Octopus Investments — proud sponsor of Surrey and Birmingham T20 teams. Join the conversation @OctopusT20 to compare player stats, view one-on-one records and discover what it takes to be a #gamechanger

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Gareth Batty

Gareth Batty: It’s so intimidating facing a nasty fasty like Aussie Johnson

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