'Fearsome' Mitchell Johnson has the heart of a teddy bear!

The Australian media has claimed that fast bowler Mitchell Johnson loves heavy metal music and fast cars but he has always had the heart of a teddy bear.

According to News.com.au, occasionally the teddy turns into a grizzly, but the fast bowler with his menacing 'tash and tattoo sleeve has a delightfully soft underbelly.

In his early years playing for Queensland, the biggest knock on him was that he was simply too nice and polite to be a feared fast bowler, the report said.

When he walked into the Queensland cricket offices as a callow teenager, the girls in the office wanted to mother him and everyone else wanted to take him under their wing, the report added.

One Queensland staffer remembers Johnson coming in early one day and sitting in the corner like a church mouse, quietly counting down the hour or so until he had to go to cricket training, the report further said.