Spencer Johnson: IPL 2024 Player Profile, Career, Personal information, Batting and Bowling Stats, and All you need to know

Spencer Johnson is a lanky left-arm pacer with immense potential.
 By Darpan Jain Dec 31, 2023, 11:38 IST
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Under Ashish Nehra, Spencer Johnson will get to learn plenty of things and can be a long-term investment for the Gujarat Titans.

Spencer Johnson: IPL Player Profile

  • Age: 28

  • Country: Australia

  • IPL Team: Gujarat Titans (GT)

  • IPL 2024 Auction Price: INR 10 crore

  • Role: Fast bowler

  • Batting Style: Left-handed batter

  • Bowling Style: Left-arm fast

Spencer Johnson is a lanky left-arm pacer with immense potential. His best value is with the new ball, as Spencer can move the ball at pace in both directions early on. He can extract even the slightest assistance in the air or off the deck.

Further, Johnson bowls with a high release and gets extra bounce due to his height, agitating the batters further. He has all the ingredients to be a threatening pacer for his national and franchise teams. No wonder Gujarat Titans (GT) were massively interested in him and spent INR 10 crore despite little international experience in the IPL 2024 auction.

Johnson is also working on bowling more effectively in the middle and death overs, and the recent signs are encouraging. He has the pace, easing his way through these two phases. Spencer will be an indispensable asset if he works on nailing more yorkers.

Spencer Johnson: Personal information 

  • Birthday: December 16, 1995

  • Birthplace: Adelaide, South Australia

  • Father: Greg Johnson

  • Siblings: 2 brothers, Oliver Johnson (elder) and Issac Johnson (younger)

  • Religion: Unknown

  • Spouse: Unknown

Spencer Johnson was born on 16 December 1995 in Adelaide. His father, Greg, was a footballer at South Broken Hill and then joined the South Australian National Football League with West Adelaide. Spencer’s two brothers have also represented the same club.

Clearly, Johnson was born into a sport-loving family, and sports came naturally to him. He was adept in both cricket and football. However, the left-arm pacer left football to focus on his cricketing career after being chosen in the state U-19 team for the 2013-14 national championships.

The injuries have plagued his career severely, for Johnson missed a large part of competitive cricket due to an ankle stress fracture. He had to undergo surgery twice, and his doctor even said that he would be lucky if he ran again after the second surgery. However, Spencer has overcome all the obstacles and is now eyeing a spot in the T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and the USA.

Spencer Johnson: Career Stats

  • First-class Cricket:

- 4 matches

- 20 wickets

- 9/83 BBM

- 23.15 average

- 39.35 strike rate

- 2 five-wicket hauls

- 0 ten-wicket haul

  • List A Cricket:

- 7 matches

- 6 wickets

- 2/41 BBM

- 58.50 average

- 60.50 strike rate

- 0 five-wicket haul

  • T20 Cricket:

- 22 matches

- 20 wickets

- 3/1 BBM

- 28.85 average

- 22 strike rate

- 0 five-wicket haul

Spencer Johnson made his first-class debut against Victoria in February this year. He took six wickets in his debut game and seven wickets against Queensland next week. He had a fantastic start to his red-ball career.

Johnson’s List A debut came in 2017 against Victoria, where he took a solitary wicket while conceding 72 runs. The injuries didn’t let him play consistently after his debut. Overall, he has only featured in seven 50-over games.

Also Read: Gerald Coetzee: IPL 2024 Player Profile, Career, Personal information, Batting and Bowling Stats, and All you need to know

His T20 cricket career has seen him play 22 matches, where he has snared 20 wickets. His best came in The Hundred against Manchester Originals, where he took three wickets while conceding only a solitary run. That was the time when the whole world saw his superior talent, eventually leading to his lavish IPL deal months later.

Gujarat Titans bought him for INR 10 crore. Spencer Johnson will learn a lot from the GT camp. His career will only see a surge from here on, and Johnson will look to finally unleash his true potential and turn himself into an all-format beast.

What are the experts saying about Spencer Johnson?

“They (GT) pulled out and said that they would go in some other direction. There, they bought Spencer Johnson for ten crores. It was almost clear that they needed a left-arm fast bowler,” said Aakash Chopra.

“Spencer Johnson went for INR 10 crore, and it’s not something which hasn’t previously happened in the IPL. Every team has an option of ‘if not this, then that’, and it goes on. At times, you may have five options, but even with that, you won’t get between the ten teams. I think we have covered all bases and are pretty much very happy,” said Ashish Nehra.

“Big buy for gujarat_titans as they secure Spencer Johnson. The fiery spell of 1 run in 20 balls if you remember.” tweeted Robin Uthappa.

“I think the longer it went, I guess you start to lose a little bit of hope," he said. "So the longer it was going, I think the less chance I had. But at the end of the day, I was in a position where I was in the auction, and this time last year, I wasn't. So whatever happened was going to happen, and anything would have been a good result,” said Spencer Johnson about this year’s IPL auction.

Will Spencer Johnson find a place in the Gujarat Titans (GT) Playing XI in IPL 2024?

Gujarat Titans badly wanted a left-arm pacer and went hard after Mitchell Starc. However, once they couldn’t get him, last year’s runners-up went all-out for Spencer Johnson and got him for a whopping ten crore in the mini-auction. He might start for GT in the XI next year.

Spencer Johnson and Mohammed Shami will form a dangerous new-ball combination for Gujarat Titans. There is always some help for the pacers early on in Ahmedabad under the lights, increasing the value of Spencer Johnson. His left-arm angle will also provide a different dimension to GT.

GT can use him as a powerplay specialist and bowl three overs upfront. His remaining over can be used somewhere in the middle or death overs as per requirement. Under Ashish Nehra, Spencer Johnson will get to learn plenty of things and can be a long-term investment for the Gujarat Titans.

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