Not for the first time in his career, Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson is being driven by a desire to bounce back to his intimidating best and prove his critics wrong.
Like the rest of the Australian team, Johnson was well below par during their losing Ashes campaign in England this year.
After yielding just 15 wickets at an average of 34.93, some - including former Australian captain Mark Taylor - questioned whether the pace spearhead deserved a spot in the starting XI for next month's Test series opener against New Zealand in Brisbane.
But Johnson - who plans to play in Western Australia's final two domestic one-day cup matches following a post-Ashes rest - said on Wednesday he's harnessing that criticism as motivation ahead of the Australian summer.
"That's what's happened throughout my whole career and it does drive me," Johnson said.
"In the end I know where I fit and how I'm going and I'm pretty happy with where I am at the moment."
Johnson was often maligned for his inconsistency during his younger days but changed the course of his career with a breakout performance in the 2013-14 home Ashes series in which he claimed 37 wickets at 13.97.
He says there were times during the 2015 series against England when he wasn't as explosive as he would have liked but was at times limited by the conditions.
Australia have assembled a 20-man squad for a two-day red ball camp at Hurstville Oval in Sydney in preparation for the Gabba Test, starting on November 5.
While there is relative stability in the bowling attack, there are opportunities throughout the whole batting order following the retirement of opener Chris Rogers and skipper Michael Clarke while wicketkeeper Peter Nevill and allrounder Mitchell Marsh are still establishing themselves.
Australia's postponed tour of Bangladesh due to security issues robbed the likes of Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja and Cameron Bancroft to make their cases.
The Aussies will field an inexperienced batting line-up against the Kiwis and Johnson encouraged them to be aggressive from the get go.
"There's aways pressure in this game at this level. We've got a little bit less experience but some of these guys are making runs at state level and doing really well there," Johnson said.
"Those guys, it's disappointing they didn't get the chance to get over to Bangladesh and score some runs there.
"But they're eager guys and they'll go out there and play their brand of cricket which is our good, hard, aggressive cricket."
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