Mitchell Johnson's mojo risin' Fearsome sight: Johnson charges in to bowl during the first Test against England at the Gabba last week. THREE years before Mitch Johnson dragged Australia back into Ashes contention at the Gabba he was at the same venue at one of his lowest career ebbs. He was dropped after that first 2010-11 Test against England, later admitting that in going wicketless, for the third consecutive innings, he was trying to correct serious flaws in his bowling action in the middle of a Test. A year later the left-armer suffered a severe toe injury while batting in a famous Test victory away to South Africa, to end a 12-month period in which he averaged a miserable 46.75 with the ball. If you exclude his dazzling burst of 9-82 against England in Perth, that average balloons to 69.33. Mitchell Johnson celebrates dismissing Joe Root at the Gabba. That record for someone who had just turned 30, combined with the widespread derision that had haunted Johnson since his radar failed in the 2009 Ashes and the arrival of Australia's battery of young express pacemen, led to a popular conclusion: as a Test bowler, Johnson was finished. So how in the space of three years did the glare upon Johnson at the Gabba shift from disdain to deference to, as long-time manager Sam Halvorsen describes, "11 out of 10" for his current level of happiness? His extraordinary athleticism had been there the whole time, and the rare fear factor he possessed for opposition batsmen never went away totally. But the main flaw that had buoyed rival international teams during the past 4½ years, that his confidence was so fickle and his bowling so ineffective when it dropped, has been buffed out significantly, if not completely. Suddenly, the fact Johnson, who turned 32 four weeks ago, boasts a lower-than-textbook bowling action, a trait which has improved without being solved, can be treated as a quirk rather than an insurmountable liability. I spent some really good time with him at the IPL this year in Mumbai. I knew then that things were starting to turn," retired Australian great Ricky Ponting says. He was bowling quick and just knocking blokes over with great deliveries. My first encounter with Johnson after the toe injury was a month after the surgery that immobilised him for the 2011-12 summer. Apart from the unusual circumstances - he was clad only in underpants and a moonboot, as part of a sponsor's photo shoot - he made the stunning admission it was a relief to be injured, because he was exhausted by the near-relentless scrutiny on his place in the Test team. "Obviously there's been a fair bit in the press written about my form over the past 12 months ... I probably didn't deal with it the way I would have liked to have, let it get to me a bit," he explained. But that negativity about the immediate past was coupled by an overt optimism about the future, which would start - and many expected would be limited to - being clad in the whites of Western Australia. "I'm happy to put my hand up and go and do the hard yards in state cricket," he insisted in January 2012. Johnson had virtually been a WA player in name only to that point, because of his onerous international duties. After making his Test debut in late 2007, the first Test he missed was the Adelaide one against England he was dropped for three years ago. His 39 consecutive Tests from debut was a record for an Australian bowler, beating all-rounder Keith Miller's 35 and Rodney Hogg's 15. He played almost four years straight. We just rolled him out game after game," says Australia team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris, who marvels at Johnson's physical resilience. It's not just his body type; it's his work ethic and his attitude. You don't just stumble on a body like that; you have to work hard. Johnson's extended off-season stint with the Warriors - he preferred that to rushing straight back into an English county cricket stint - reunited him with Adam Griffith, a fellow invitee at the cricket academy many years earlier who had since retired and been appointed the state's bowling coach. "We really just broke him back down to the basics again, getting him back to doing what he was doing really well," Griffith recalls. We got him off his short run and got him running a lot straighter and at the crease we got him off that back leg as much as we could, because when he hits down on his back leg that slows everything down and that's when he starts ... bowling around himself. We had to get him nice and tall and look at his feet placement at the wicket, and then getting nice and high in his follow-through. An intermittent - but vital - coaching influence during this period was Dennis Lillee, now back on the CA payroll as a pace consultant. "D.K. Lillee - it starts and finishes there," is Halvorsen's verdict on where credit for Johnson's revival should be apportioned, although he then cited retired swing bowler Terry Alderman for improving the left-armer's wrist position when bowling. At this point Griffith asked Johnson directly what he wanted to achieve. He said he wanted to get back to being the best bowler in the world. As soon as he said that, I knew that whatever it took he'd do," he says. The Test series which Johnson hurt himself in late 2011 was the last chosen under the old Andrew Hilditch-led selection regime. The new John Inverarity-led panel showed its interest in Johnson by selecting him for a mid-2012 Australia A series in England and then a one-day international series there and against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. On his return to Australia, he played the opening fortnight of the 2012-13 domestic season before heading back overseas for more limited-overs matches, for his IPL team Mumbai at the Champions League. It was on his return from the Champions League that Griffith realised he would be seeing a lot less of Johnson for WA than he had pencilled him in for, despite Johnson's acceptance he had fallen far down Australia's pace pecking order. Within a month, Johnson was back in the Test team, at his favoured WACA Ground, for last summer's pivotal series decider against South Africa. That Australia was thrashed by the Proteas is well remembered. What is not is that the left-armer was its most economical specialist seamer with 2-54 and 4-110, and that he took two brilliant catches. Johnson was dropped for the next Test in Hobart against Sri Lanka, to allow for the return of Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus. Any fears his axing may have affected him were quickly dispelled as the birth of he and wife Jessica's first child, Rubika, a week earlier had already begun to skew - positively - his view on cricket. "Having a daughter changes things a lot," says manager Halvorsen. He also lauds the impact of Jessica, a former karate champion, on Johnson. "She's an elite sportswoman in her own right, so she understands the pressure that builds for any sportsperson," he says. She's determined, strong, supportive ... they just have a honest, open relationship. With the red ball last summer - five shield matches and three Tests - Johnson's record was an impressive 32 wickets at an average of 25.87. But credits for him were sparse given the domineering presence of the Ashes above all other series. An extended post-summer in India hindered and helped Johnson - he played only one match in the calamitous Test series, in which he was among the four players suspended for not doing homework assigned by then Australian coach Mickey Arthur. The help came straight after the Tests in the IPL, as explained by his Mumbai teammate Ponting. He finished third on the IPL wicket tally and was able to unsettle world-class batsmen in pitch conditions that favour bat more than ball. It was during the IPL that Johnson discovered he had not made Australia's touring Ashes squad. Again, instead of a county cricket stint, he elected to return to Perth. Griffith lauds both that decision and, surprisingly, that of the Inverarity-led panel to exclude him from touring England, declaring the left-armer "wasn't ready then - and he'd say the same thing." He argues having a second consecutive pre-season training bloc to prepare for the home Ashes series was vital for Johnson. I think the Australian selectors have done it perfectly with Mitch. They've waited to see what he can do back out in the middle with the red ball and got him back in at the right time when his confidence was up," Griffith says. He's really enjoying playing cricket for Australia again, which for him is a big thing. Halvorsen praises the impact of Darren Lehmann since he succeeded Arthur as Australia's coach. He says Lehmann and captain Michael Clarke have allowed Johnson to thrive by giving him "a licence to bowl fast." He argues this is in contrast to how Johnson was handled by Ponting, who led Australia for the first three years of his Test career. Lehmann says to him 'You're a fast-bowler - bowl fast', whereas Ponting, who I managed for 10 years, stuffed him up in my opinion, because he wanted him to be the spearhead of the attack while bowling first change. In response, Ponting, who has a civil relationship with Halvorsen despite their split in mid-2008, defended the way he handled Johnson. The key thing for most of our guys is to keep things really simple ... especially with the bowlers. It's a bloody hard gig, being a fast bowler or a spin bowler, so ... if they can't do that, you break it down and get them to do something else," Ponting says. Mitch is now a different person because he's more in control of his actual action, it's a lot more refined than it was. His arm's higher, he's got better control of where the ball's going, therefore he's more confident. He's bowling fast because he's confident. That [confidence and resilience] is just because he's in control of his game. You look at sportsmen around the world; Adam Scott what he's done [on Thursday in golf's Australian Open] ... it doesn't matter what anyone else is doing, they've got control of what they're doing. When [elite] sportsmen are like that the sky's the limit. They're unstoppable. That Johnson is a matchwinner is undeniable. The man-of-the-match award he won in Brisbane last week was his sixth from 52 Tests. Among Australians with at least five gongs only Shane Warne, with one award for every 8.5 Tests, beats the frequency of Johnson of one every 8.7. Griffith acknowledges Johnson's stunning start to the Ashes will not be easy to maintain, saying the Adelaide Oval pitch he saw a fortnight ago was "the flattest wicket I've ever seen in my life." The contrasting factor, he says, is Johnson's drive to dominate an Ashes series for the first time. Redemption is a big thing for him, and satisfaction he's doing it against a team that's had the better of him in the past couple over times he's played against them. In the preceding two Ashes series Johnson featured in, in England in 2009 and here three years ago, he was subjected to merciless sledging from England's Barmy Army, compounding the slurs he received from many Australian supporters, pundits and ex-players. Rather than attempt to insulate himself from such barbs, however, Johnson confronted them by joining Twitter five months ago. While the importance of such a move can be overstated from afar, Halvorsen says he, too, considered it evidence Johnson is "much more" mentally strong now than he has been for much of his career. "Attitudinal change has been very important [in his recent success]," Halvorsen says. It [joining Twitter] is probably a reflection of his growing self-esteem and confidence. The other clear sign of his growing resilience came when taking the first new ball at the Gabba. His first six overs leaked 32 runs. Old Johnson would have dwelled on the past, and could have dropped his bundle. New Johnson got a wicket with his next ball, the last before lunch as England was cruising. The rest was a fairytale.