Not so much as remotely a coincidence. Though Johnson being one of the best two after one outstanding spell also says something about Aus' bowling at Adelaide.Was it any coincidence, that the 2 best Oz bowlers have only played 2 tests, along with Tremlett, they all seemed more fit and firing than the others.
He'd been to the UK and back in a week though.TBH I thought Jimmeh looked moreso in need of a rest than Finn, even from early on in the Perth match. He's so much better than the alternatives that he kinda has to be picked, but the next two matches are back-to-back, and how well is he going to be bowling by the second innings at Sydney?
Having such a settled lineup served England pretty well for the first two tests but with Broad's injury it could easily come back to bite them in the ass in the last two. Of Australia's attack, only Peter Siddle has played all three of the first games. And he'll run in all day .
I wasn't really on that Johnson train but regarding Finn I would agree he can bowl good balls that take wickets, however the amount of wickets he has taken this series has been more so to brain meltdowns by Australian's than his own occasional flashes of class. Anderson and Broad outbowled him for large patches of those first two Tests and Finn got gifted a fair amount of the wickets.Ah. Has Finn replaced Mitchell Johnson as the current CW in vogue "Only takes wickets with bad balls" bowler? As with Johnson, what a pile of tripe. He takes wickets with good balls, and bowls tripe in between, get it right.
Also, certainly at Perth he was clearly playing with a more than basic niggle.