Kevin Pietersen: Mitchell Johnson sent shudders in the England dressing room

Kevin Pietersen's soon-to-be released autobiography has already ruffled some feathers in the cricketing fraternity, but perhaps one of the more interesting snippets to have come out so far is the time Australian pacer, Mitchell Johnson and his hostile bowling in The Ashes let 'a shudder run through the (England) dressing room'.

Pietersen recollects how, when he saw Jonathan Trott getting out the way he did in Gabba, he turned down lunch and started contemplating whether he would face Johnson successfully and come out alive.

"Lunch? No thanks. I was sitting there, thinking: I could die here in the f**king Gabbattoir," Pietersen wrote of the moments immediately after Trott's dismissal.

"How could Trotty, this calm, collected buddy of mine, play like that? Get hit like that? Get out like that? I was really worried. I had been petrified: if Trotty can get played like that there is no hope for me, because Trotty is normally so calm and cool."

KP also writes on how he tried to unsettle the Aussie by trying to sledge him, but Johnson's reaction was completely unexpected.

"As I ran past Mitchell Johnson and I said to him, it's me or you, buddy, and believe me, I'm less scared of getting out than you are scared of giving me a lot of runs," Pietersen wrote.

"He looked at me, just stared at me, he didn't say anything back. He kept staring and walked past. S**t. S**t. S**t. On so many occasions in the past, Johnson has always bit back: 'shut up, KP, f**k off, shut up, big shot'."

"This time he didn't say anything, and immediately I knew he was different. I would have preferred him to have said something, to engage with me, but he didn't, and that's when I knew the series could be tough. It proved to be extremely tough."

The former England captain also had words of praise for Johnson's captain Michael Clarke, who he reckoned captained the side really well.

"Michael Clarke captained him brilliantly by using him in three-over bursts to keep him fresh throughout the day," he wrote.

"And because he was never tired, the threat of him hung over us like a sword all day long. Part of Johnson's deal this time was that he was in our heads even when he wasn't bowling. You very seldom hear people in your own team saying that they are physically scared, but our tail-end batsmen were scared.

"I heard (Stuart) Broad, (Jimmy) Anderson and (Graeme) Swann say they were scared. When you've got that, you know that a bloke in the other team is doing damage. (After the Gabba Test) we were done, then, until the next time.

"My knee was hurting. My pride was dented. Trotty was in shreds. The tail-enders were scared. Cooky was dithering. It was clear that Johnson was already a weapon that we had no answer to," he summed up.