Johnson wary of Bangladesh threat

Richard Johnson has Bangladesh opener Hannan Sarkar caught behind for his sixth wicket of nine in the second Test - in 2003

Former England seamer Richard Johnson expects Bangladesh to be a much tougher proposition second time round on home soil.

The 35-year-old, who ended his playing career soon after the the 2007 season, toured Bangladesh on England’s only previous visit to the youngest Test-playing nation - in the autumn of 2003.

Johnson enjoyed arguably his best time in an England shirt as the tourists swept all before them with whitewashes in the Test and one-day series.

The right-arm medium-pacer replaced the injured Steve Harmison in the second Test at Chittagong and demolished the hosts, picking up nine wickets and the man-of-the-match award.

Johnson continued his impressive form in the one-dayers, returning disciplined figures in the first game and claiming 3-22 in the second before being rested for the third.

However, he has seen sufficient improvement in the Tigers over the last six and a half years to know it will not be such a straightforward task now against the nation that played its first Test in November 2000.

“Unless you’re exposed to it, you’re not going to improve,” Johnson told ecb.co.uk. “They’ve been there for a while now and I think they are improving.

“It took Sri Lanka a while with exactly the same sort of thing. They’re certainly getting there. They’ve certainly got the talent there to play international cricket.”

In the second Test, Johnson and his fellow seamers - Matthew Hoggard, Martin Saggers and Rikki Clarke - preyed on Bangladesh’s weakness against the short ball.

Such was the success of this ploy, England completed an emphatic 329-run victory inside four days at the at MA Aziz Stadium.

“We actually found that they didn’t like the short ball so much so we played on that a little bit,” Johnson revealed.

“I just ran in and made sure I bowled quite aggressively, which was even harder work on wickets that don’t help you out that much.

“We actually found that they didn’t like the short ball so much so we played on that a little bit,” Johnson revealed

“But we made sure we hit the wicket quite hard and bowled quite aggressive at them and it paid off in that particular Test match."

Johnson puts his success - 5-59 in the first innings and 4-48 in the second - down to Bangladesh’s inexperience against the pace and bounce.

“At that stage they probably didn’t have bowlers who would run in and bowl aggressively at them,” he continued.

“They had more bowlers who would pitch it up and try and swing it and reverse-swing it, which we mixed in with, but we definitely went in at the hard with the shorter balls and more aggressively at the chest area really and they didn’t really know (what to do).

“They tried to take it on and they tried to hook all the time and that’s how we got quite a few of our wickets during that time.”

Naturally, Johnson has fond memories of the month-long trip to Bangladesh, which preceded a less fruitful tour of Sri Lanka.

Having made his Test and ODI debuts against Zimbabwe that summer, he would play his final games in both formats in Sri Lanka that winter.

“It’s obviously quite a tough place to tour, the sub-continent anyway,” he said. “I’ve only got good memories because I actually played and had some success. My memories of it have been really positive."

Johnson, who was appointed Middlesex assistant coach in November last year, had toured India two winters before and remembers being impressed by England’s treatment in Bangladesh.

That was crucial considering the demands placed on seamers on the largely unforgiving unforgiving sub-continental pitches.

“It’s no tougher probably than India or Pakistan,” he added. “The sub-continent is just a tough place full stop; the conditions, the heat, the pitches for pace bowlers to bowl on. All those things make it a tough place.

“We were looked after fantastically well. They bent over backwards to help you and do whatever you need basically, so you can’t complain in that sense. It’s just an all-round tough place as a seam bowler, bowling on the sub-continent.”