Brett Lee says the sky’s the limit for Mitchell Johnson and hopes his fellow paceman passes him on Australia’s all-time Test cricket wicket-taking list.

Johnson’s haul of 37 wickets in the Ashes series hoisted his career total to 242, pushing him four places up the list to ninth.

His bumper bag of English scalps lifted him over Stuart MacGill, Merv Hughes, and legends Clarrie Grimmett and Ray Lindwall.

Johnson needs five wickets in the upcoming three-Test series in South Africa to surpass Graham McKenzie and seven more to exceed Riche Benaud.

His strike rate of 51.9 balls per wicket is better than any of the eight men above him on the list, though all of them have played more Tests.

“The sky is the limit now for Mitch,” said Lee, who is fourth on the Australian all-time list with 310 wickets.

“If he keeps bowling with that confidence, and with that mindset that he has, who knows where it can lead.”

A vehement opponent of rotation Lee was happy to see pacemen Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle play all five Tests against England and felt the attack was suited to South African conditions.

“I just think that you’ve got to give full credit to Cricket Australia and importantly (coach) Darren Lehmann is the guy that changed the whole rotation policy,” Lee said.

“I think everyone is pretty clear on what my views are on that.

“They’ve thrown it out the window now, they’ve scrunched it up and thrown it in the bin.

“All of a sudden the guys now are actually finding some form there.

“They are confident that they are playing the five Test matches back to back unless somebody obviously gets injured.

“So cricket now from Australia’s point of view is in a very good spot.

“I don’t see any reason why Australia can’t go over there and be competitive, and even beat South Africa on their home soil.”