Mitchell Johnson: Phil Hughes’ tragic demise made me question my bowling tactics

Johnson questioned his aggressive, short-pitched bowling that was peppered with bouncers, following Hughes's death last year.

Mitchell Johnson has said that the tragic passing away of Australian team-mate Phil Hughes last year made him question his bowling tactics, especially his aggressive, short-pitched deliveries. Johnson, who retired from international cricket after the second Test against New Zealand in Perth, said that Hughes’s death sent shockwaves around the world and changed the way the game was played, including the sensitivity towards aggression in the sport. Johnson, one of the most feared bowlers of his generation, used aggressive bowling tactics to get 37 wickets at an average of 13.97 to top the bowling charts in the 2013/14 edition of the Ashes.

“It still hurts to this day. It definitely affected players around the world and I think it changed the game a little bit for a while there,” Johnson was quoted as saying in an interview to ABC.

I had that Ashes series where I was really aggressive and bowling a lot of short balls and I did hit players. And it made me think, was I doing the right thing? You know, was I playing in the spirit of the game?.”

“I’ve always gone out there and bowled fast, bowled my short balls, been aggressive. I just felt I couldn’t go the other way,” added Johnson, who eventually concluded that short-pitched bowling had its place in cricket.

Hughes was struck by a bouncer on his neck off the bowling of Sean Abbott in a Sheffield Shield game last year, and passed away at a Sydney Hospital a couple of days later on November 27. Tributes poured in for the cricketer from all over the world, and several cricketers and fans attended his funeral at his hometown of Mackesville in New South Wales.