Thomson backs Johnson for the Ashes

Jeff Thomson, the former Australian fast bowler, has said that based on his performance in Malaysia, Mitchell Johnson, the left-arm fast bowler, should be in the reckoning for the Ashes.

"I just think he [Johnson] did pretty well for himself over there, he's quicker than the others," Thomson told ABC Sport. Johnson impressed everyone by taking four wickets for 11 runs against India in the third match of the DLF Cup which was eventually abandoned because of rain. His four victims included Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan. Johnson returned to Australia after the match because the selectors had decided earlier that three players in the original 18-man squad would head back home after two matches.

Though Stuart Clark had an uneventful outing in Kuala Lumpur with only two wickets from his three matches, Thomson felt that Clark too should be up for contention for a place in the Ashes squad.

Thomson added that it was unlikely that the England bowling attack would trouble the Australian batsmen this time round. "They haven't got the same blokes and they won't get the same assistance they had there over here," he said. "It just doesn't do the same on harder wickets. Blokes like [Matthew] Hoggard have struggled out here before because it doesn't get the seam and the swing, so they have got their problems."

The Ashes begin on November 23 in Brisbane.