Mitchell Johnson: from panto villain to England's nemesis

Mitchell Johnson, the sometimes fearsome Australian fast bowler whose reputation veered from that of pantomime villain to dead-eyed assassin, has retired from international cricket at the age of 34.

In his final Test against New Zealand, which ended in a draw, he passed Brett Lee to go fourth on the all-time list of Australian Test bowlers, behind the greats Shane Warne, Glen McGrath and Dennis Lillee, having taken 313 wickets at 28.40 apiece in 73 matches.

Tributes to the mustachioed and heavily tattooed Australian have been generous in England, the country that saw the best and worst of his bowling, and where he became a cult figure on the terraces.

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On the 2009 Ashes tour of England, where Johnson struggled for accuracy, he inspired a now-infamous ditty that decried his bowling as "s***e". But he got his own back during the Ashes tour of 2013-14, when he reduced England's top order to rubble with some of the most exhilarating and hostile pace bowling the game had witnessed since the demise of the great West Indian sides of the 1980s.

And it is for that he will be remembered, says Russell Jackson in The Guardian. Fast bowlers are "frozen in time at their peak, when tailenders backed fearfully towards square leg and greats of the game were putty in their hands", he says. "On the latter point, Johnson's sublime 2013-14 will stand as the summer-long monument to his fearsome reputation and also ensured his place in Australia's fast bowling pantheon."

At his best he was the kind of bowler who "would keep batsmen awake at night with fear", says Michael Atherton in The Times. He says that Johnson's terrifying bowling on that 2013-14 tour was at least partly responsible for the subsequent disintegration of an entire England team and the end of more than one career.

"There were echoes here (helmets notwithstanding) of the terror induced in England's batsmen... by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson four decades before. Not since then, had Australian crowds been so electrified by such potentially bone-jarring pace."

He quotes Kevin Pietersen who, in his autobiography, recalled how it felt waiting to bat while Johnson tore into England at the Gabba in Brisbane. He wrote: "I was sitting there, thinking: I could die here in the f****** Gabbattoir'."

Pietersen was witnessing what Michael Vaughan of the Daily Telegraph calls "one of the most ferocious spells I have ever seen from a fast bowler".

He, like other former players, explains that Johnson's slingy action and somewhat erratic form made him almost impossible for a batsman to 'pick', and that made him far more dangerous than other bowlers of a similar pace. But it also made him vulnerable when he was not on song.

"The fact he was the pantomime villain for England fans was a mark of respect. They do not bother to rile players they know pose no threat to their team. The England fans knew that if Johnson clicked he could blow England away in an hour and turn a match in a session," he adds.