MITCHELL JOHNSON: Being in the spotlight during a form slump is horrible because you have nowhere to hide

When the Australian cricket team is beaten, we all want answers.

Some things look obvious from the outside, while others only come from the inner sanctum.

When you are under the microscope as players, especially after a bad defeat, the stresses can intensify.

When players are under pressure because of not being able to do their job, such as Marnus Labuschagne in his current form slump, you do put added pressure on yourself because you want to be at your best for the team.

It’s not a great feeling when you aren’t performing. And I’ve been there!

When I was struggling in South Africa in 2011, I wished to get injured so I would be left out of the team and could just get away from it all and it happened.

The thing is when you’re in the spotlight and constantly being judged on performances, when it’s not going well, it’s just hard. It really is a horrible feeling because it is all being played out publicly and you have nowhere to hide.

You want to be at your best because you don’t want to let your team or country down. But you feel that you are letting everyone down.

You then try so hard you can end up overtrying to get your form back and return to your best. Yet you aren’t going to turn around and tell the selectors not to pick you.

The serious toe injury I suffered in 2011 ended up being a blessing in disguise. It came at a time when I wasn’t coping with my poor form being in the spotlight and if I hadn’t been dropped, early retirement could have been on the cards.

Instead, the enforced time away allowed me to get back to basics and work on things I knew I needed to work on to improve my game.

It also let me clear my mushed-up mind that was going a thousand miles an hour trying to figure out how to change things while I was playing cricket for Australia.

I’ve seen many players go through form slumps and their own battles within and I can say one thing they all had in common is that not one player ever just gave up. They would always give everything they could no matter what.

In my toughest periods, captain Ricky Ponting always had faith in me by giving me the ball in all scenarios of the game to try and build my confidence.

It worked on occasions and other times it didn’t. I’m sure he was frustrated at times, but only because he wanted the best out of me and for the team.

When players go through their struggles and slumps, their teammates are always there in support, regardless of whether that’s working together at training or just a coffee and a chat.

Most of the time it’s the mental side that is the issue more than the physical or technical, although it can be all those things.

For instance, I look at Steve Smith at the moment and I think he looks the same technically, yet feel his sharpness and focus isn’t quite there as it was before.

There could be many reasons for that and Smith will have people around him helping him through. He could be just one big score away from getting going and for everything to click.

I had a handful of people I could go to throughout my career for help at any time but the biggest thing for me was simply getting away from the pressure of playing for Australia. It let me come up with a really good plan on how I wanted to play the game coming back and the biggest thing was believing in myself.

The Border-Gavaskar series is far from over and it’s certainly not a time to panic. But Australia will need to put pressure on India early when the second Test gets underway at Adelaide Oval on Friday and keep it up or they could find the 1-0 deficit it hard to come back from.

The Aussies were shown up in Perth and they will be feeling it as a team but have to move on quickly. No one likes to lose and they are not used to it at home.

The pressure that comes with a convincing loss, the pile-on that follows and the self-doubt that creeps into players’ heads is something you have to deal with as a professional.

As an outsider watching on, I want to see some fight from this Australian side. Not a debutant and a young opening batsman from India getting in the faces of our team on our own turf and sledging Mitchell Starc saying he’s bowling too slow.

Relying on our great record in pink ball day-night Test matches and just expecting it to happen again won’t be enough against this Indian side.

Let’s see some energy and intent with bat and ball, but even more so in the field where it was clearly lacking at Optus Stadium.