Mitchell Guy Johnson (born 2 November 1981) is a former Australian cricketer, who played all forms of the game for his national side.

After suffering a drop in form that led to his removal from the national side in early 2013, he was particularly successful in his 'comeback' to the Australian Test squad during the 2013–14 Ashes series in Australia, during which he dominated England's batting.

[10] It wasn't until the age of 17 that Johnson gave up on his childhood dream of being a professional tennis player and began focusing on cricket.

[11] Lillee contacted former teammate Rod Marsh and arranged for Johnson to join the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide.

[11] Johnson subsequently played for the Australian Under-19 side that toured England in 1999, however recurrent back injuries hampered his prospects.

He recovered to start his first-class career two years later, when he was selected to play state cricket for his native Queensland.

Johnson then played in the Australian 2006 ICC Champions Trophy team and in the group A match against England where he took 3/40, including the wicket of Kevin Pietersen.

On 10 November 2007, while making his Australian Test match debut against Sri Lanka at his home ground, the Gabba, Johnson took his first wicket – that of Thilan Samaraweera, caught by Adam Gilchrist.

[14] On 19 January 2008, Johnson scored his first ever Test half-century, against India in Perth, having been both dropped and bowled off a no-ball, although Australia ended up losing the match.

The 2009 tour to South Africa saw an important development in Johnson's armoury – the ability to consistently swing the ball into the right-hander, which he previously had struggled to achieve.

With tail-ender Bryce McGain for company, Johnson decided to take on the bowling and struck Dale Steyn for six to reach his century.

Johnson's position as spearhead of the Australian seam-attack was called into question, with match figures of 3/200 in the second Test at Lord's and his demotion to first-change bowler in Australia's tour game against Northamptonshire.

Although Johnson went wicketless in the West Indian innings, he secured the man of the match award as Australia won by 50 runs.

[23][24] Johnson appeared to get back to his best towards the end of 2009, earning praise from captain Ricky Ponting during the summer series against both the West Indies and Pakistan.

In July 2012, he admitted the jibes he'd received from England fans during successive Ashes series defeats had dented his confidence.

He had a poor first innings with the ball and bat with figures of 1–118 and only making 13, despite a fierce spell to Lahiru Thirimanne which, unfortunately, didn't claim any wickets.

Before the 3rd Test against India in March 2013, Johnson was dropped along with James Pattinson, Shane Watson and Usman Khawaja following a breach of discipline.

[31] Michael Clarke, the captain, revealed that the extreme step had been taken as a result of repeated infractions which led to Watson flying back home and contemplating Test retirement.

After claiming the wicket of Jonathan Trott just before lunch on the second day, he then dismissed Michael Carberry, Joe Root and Graeme Swann in successive overs, engineering a dramatic English collapse from 2/82 to 136 all out.

English bowler Stuart Broad came in to bat next, and he spent time asking for something on the sight screen to be fixed before facing a ball.

[37] At the end of the series in January 2014, Johnson also won the Allan Border Medal (awarded to the best-performing male Australian cricketer of the year) for the first and only time in his career.

However, in the 2nd Test at Lord's, Johnson recovered to take 6 wickets in the match and a run-out of Ben Stokes to help Australia to a 405-run win to level the series with England at 1–1.

[41] While coming out to bat in his last innings later that day at his adopted home ground, the WACA, Johnson received a guard of honour from the New Zealand players, who congratulated him for his prolific career.

[42] In August 2016, after Johnson's retirement from international cricket, it was announced that he had signed with the Perth Scorchers for the 2016–17 Big Bash League season.