CHELMSFORD: They were among the defining images of Australia's Ashes whitewash two summers ago: Mitchell Johnson steaming in and England tailenders ducking for cover.

It was far from the authorised account of the series but Kevin Pietersen later said in his autobiography just how terrifying it was facing Johnson for the non-specialist batsmen in the England side. "You very seldom hear people in your own team saying that they are physically scared, but our tailend batsmen were scared," Pietersen wrote. "I heard Broad, Anderson and Swann say they were scared."

The good news for Stuart Broad and James Anderson is that they're not having to deal with Johnson on fast, bouncy Australian pitches (the good news for Graeme Swann is he's retired). The bad news is that Johnson is going to try to repeat the tactic in the Ashes over the next two months anyway.

"I think so," Johnson said when asked if he would again bounce and intimidate England tailenders this winter. "You've got to target the vulnerabilities of their tail and they have struggled in recent times. They obviously didn't like it on the fast pitches in Australia but it might be a little more difficult here.

"It's something that's worth a try, especially to guys like Broad who have struggled recently and he's probably lost his ability a bit there. But you never know ... when he's going well, he can strike the ball pretty well and he scored a few runs recently.

"It's something that we'll definitely be talking about and looking to do again."

Johnson said he had seen footage of his 2013/14 heroics against England – he took 37 wickets across the series – and, not surprisingly, it made for quality viewing.

"I think there was something sent around through the group so it's hard not to watch it," he said. "To be able to watch it from a different point of view was exciting and I realised I bowled a lot of short balls as well."

On the flipside, he also unavoidably saw vision of when things went off course for him in England four years earlier, which you might imagine could make him angry to watch.

"It doesn't get me angry," he said. "It just frustrates me, that stuff. It's just looking more at my bowling action, to see what the difference was from then to now.

"I even go back to when I first started to see my action then to what it is now, the big changes with my load up, the front foot stride, my run-up and those kinds of things. I've moved on from that and I'm really excited."

Johnson wasn't in the Australian squad for the 2013 Ashes series here – the five paceman were Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and Jackson Bird – but he doesn't blame selectors for leaving him out.

"I was obviously disappointed not being picked in an Ashes series," he said. "But I thought about it and I probably wasn't ready so that's why I probably accepted the decision a lot easier and was able to focus on my training and getting myself right.

"It's probably the best decision from my playing point of view. It got me to have a good series at home and made sure I was ready, because deep down I wasn't really ready for an Ashes series here."

He certainly is now.