“I felt I was being questioned as a man, I felt my dignity was being stripped away,” Jonathan Trott
Sep 23, 2016 at 11:06 AM
In the 2013-14 Ashes, a former Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson terrorised former England batsman Jonathan Trott who left for home midway through the series.
Johnson, earlier in his career, broke former South African Graeme Smith’s thumb, so Trott was afraid of playing on Australian soil in a highly tensed Ashes.
Trott described Australia as circling English players “like hyenas around a dying zebra” as a frighteningly fast Mitchell Johnson terrorised him during the 2013-2014 Ashes series.
The England Test batsman also labeled Johnson as his “executioner” during the ill-fated tour when Australia emphatically regained the urn with a cruising 5-0 victory.
Trott was touring Australia with an excellent record against Australia but left the tour the first Test in Brisbane, citing stress as the reason.
In his recently released autobiography – Unguarded – Trott revealed Johnson’s brutal short ball barrage was the reason he returned home just a week into the tour.
Trott was left mentally fragile after Johnson worked him over one day series in England earlier in the year, and the 52 Test match veteran conceded he was all at sea facing the speedster.
“I felt I was being led out to face the firing squad by the time we reached Brisbane,” Trott wrote.
“I was a condemned man. Helpless, blindfolded and handcuffed. Mitchell Johnson was to be my executioner.”
Trott added that the Australians knew he wasn’t the same accomplished player who had made a classy century on debut against the old foe at the Oval when England clinched Ashes in 2009.
“And they know I’m struggling. They’re circled like hyenas around a dying zebra,” he wrote.
Johnson was easily the series’ leading wicket-taker with 37 at an average of a touch under 14.
Trott also admitted that the left-arm quick’s spells often reduce him to tears before the match.
“I felt I was being questioned as a man. I felt my dignity was being stripped away with every short ball I ducked or parried. It was degrading. It was agony,” he wrote about their battle in the 2013 ODI series in England, Trott’s last in national colours.
Trott, who made a brief return to Test cricket in 2015 before retiring, said there were no ill feelings towards Johnson, even though the man essentially ended a career.
“One day, I’d like to shake him by the hand and say, ‘Well bowled,'” he added.
“I don’t bear him an ounce of resentment. Test cricket is meant to be hard and he was admirably ruthless.”