Warner had been Australia's on-field attack dog before he was ordered by Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and team performance boss Pat Howard in 2015 "to stop looking for trouble". He had just been involved in an incident with Indian Rohit Sharma at the MCG – for which Warner was fined half his match fee by the International Cricket Council. He had also been fined earlier that summer in the Adelaide Test.

But Johnson, in his autobiography, Resilient, to be released on Monday, says the Australian side now lacks players capable of distracting the opposition through verbal warfare. He said the retirement of Brad Haddin had exacerbated this.

"Pete [Nevill] is a fine keeper and a good batsman but, in terms of personality, they couldn't be further apart. Hadds is the enforcer, he loves a scrap and if he finds an opening in an opponent he is in there digging around straight away. I came to miss that in the following Tests," Johnson said of Haddin's axing during last year's Ashes series.

"Davey Warner had taken a vow of silence or something. He'd copped a lot of criticism for his scraps on the field, including from the chief executive at Cricket Australia and the ICC, so now he was a vice-captain he backed off. It wasn't a great thing for the rest of us.

"Test cricket is a long game and conflict boosts your energy. Sometimes when we've been in the field all day a clash gets my adrenalin running again. There definitely wasn't enough conflict that winter. Sometimes I looked around for somebody to start a war of words but nobody did. Hadds was absent. Davey was silent. Punter [Ricky Ponting], Haydos [Matthew Hayden], Symmo [Andrew Symonds] and the old boys were all gone. Oh, well, I just had to get on with it."

Just how Australia should act in the field against South Africa in next week's first Test has been a point of debate since their losing Test tour of Sri Lanka and the 5-0 loss in the one-day series in South Africa.

Sutherland last week praised Warner's remodelled persona, declaring he "just continues to step up".

Kepler Wessels, the former Australian and South African batsman, had accused the Australians of "mindless babble" in the field, no longer having the enforcers who could cleverly impose verbally.

Former skipper Steve Waugh, who played in an era of verbal aggression, has called on Steve Smith's side to talk more, declaring it was too quiet in Sri Lanka.

Smith has since said "it's not about getting in their face and sledging them", rather it's more about attitude and ensuring "we have that presence out on the field so if we get a half chance that we're in a frame of mind to be ready to take it".

Australian batsman Adam Voges says he expects the WACA wicket for the opening Test against the Proteas to have the pace and bounce of yesteryear, having failed to deliver that last summer against New Zealand.

In his book, Johnson has revealed how that placid deck, which delivered 1672 runs for the loss of only 28 wickets, including double centuries to David Warner and Ross Taylor, contributed to his decision to retire.

"There was nothing in the wicket again. Joe Burns nicked the third ball of the day from Tim Southee and it fell short of the cordon. That should never happen at the WACA. When we bowled, there was nothing in the pitch for us. The ball was bouncing twice from the get-go," he said.

"I was brought on in the ninth over and Kane Williamson was facing. We had one breakthrough already and were searching for another one in the last minutes before tea. The field moved into place, I prepared myself, went through the little checklist at the top of my mark and looked down towards the batsman. I just couldn't do it. Could. Not. Be. Bothered. I thought to myself: 'What the hell am I doing here'?"

"I felt terrible for being there in that frame of mind. There was a whole Test to play and I wondered how I was going to get through it. I did my best, but I think it was noticeable to everyone that my pace was down. I didn't squib it, I put in what I had, but it wasn't much. I rang Jess [his wife] that night and said I'd had enough of this.

"I was in turmoil the next day. My head was all over the place. I kept thinking about what I should do and I reckon the boys could sense it. Nathan Lyon asked me what was wrong and Steve Smith was looking at me funny. I had 0-111 before I finally got a wicket late in the day. It was my 311th and the one that took me past Brett Lee."

Johnson, who almost quit cricket in 2013 because of the "homework" fiasco in India, said flat wickets were an ongoing issue for the sport, with livelier decks a way to reinvigorate the traditional format rather than pursuing the pink-ball day-night format.

"I like Test cricket as it is; I don't like the way they are trying to change it. Maybe you could reduce it to four days if they are going to change it – that way they would be forced to make better wickets so it is a fairer competition between bat and ball. That would bring more people to the games," he said.

"Flat wickets make flat cricket and that's all we seem to get these days. They left extra grass on in Adelaide for the pink ball game. I don't understand why they can't do that with a red ball – that would make for a bit more of an even contest.

"I understand that they want to get people coming to the game after work, but if Test cricket is held during the summer with quality sides playing and getting a good contest on a good wicket they will come."