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Peter Siddle’s Test comeback looks set to be killed off due to his surprising omission from the Victorian 50-over side which is contributing to tension between Australian coach Darren Lehmann and Victoria mentor David Saker.
Siddle has been a victim of the cancellation of the Bangladesh tour on which he was viewed as a certain starter in the Test team. He now may not get to play a single domestic game before the Test squad is announced.
The Bangladesh tour would have given him a chance to turn in performances which demanded he be retained when Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood, who were to be rested from that tour, came back into contention for the first Test against New Zealand in three weeks.
Instead, the Test squad all stayed in Australia and Siddle is the only squad member who has been ignored by his state team. The seam bowler has been overlooked by the Bushrangers’ selectors for their first three games, with Victoria preferring the trio of quicks James Pattinson, John Hastings and Scott Boland.
The veteran paceman had to wait until the fifth Ashes Test to get a game but then excelled, taking 6-67 on the back of some remarkably pinpoint bowling. Siddle had missed Australia’s previous nine Tests as the national selectors invested in the trio of Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood.
His international career had looked as though it may be over until concerns about Hazlewood’s fitness paved the way for him to play in the final Ashes match. Siddle’s accurate and effective display in that Test saved him from potentially falling off the selectors’ radar for good.
But to hold on to his spot in the XI for the first Test against New Zealand, Siddle looks likely to need more than that one Ashes match as currency.
Johnson’s extraordinary record at the WACA, the venue for the second Test against New Zealand, should guarantee him a start in the Test XI. Starc, meanwhile, has cemented his Test place by absolutely dominating the domestic One-Day Cup.
With Hazlewood yet to turn out for NSW, instead enjoying an extended rest, Siddle would have had a priceless opportunity to steal a march on his bowling rival.
At the moment, Siddle and Hazlewood appear to be battling for the same spot in the Test team. The younger man is expected to return for the Blues very shortly which would offer him an advantage over Siddle.
Siddle’s only domestic cricket before the New Zealand series starts could be Victoria’s opening Sheffield Shield game against Queensland starting in two weeks.
That fixture may be of no consequence, however, as it ends just five days before the first Test and the Australian Test squad for the home summer typically is announced more than a week in advance.
In the meantime, his younger rivals Hazlewood, Pattinson, Andrew Fekete and Nathan Coulter-Nile will be pressing their cases in the One-Day Cup.
Those four quicks, along with Siddle, Johnson and Starc, have been included in a 19-man training camp squad to prepare for the New Zealand Tests.
Pattinson (eight wickets at an average of 13), Fekete (six wickets at 16) and Starc (19 wickets at six) have all impressed with their pace and incisiveness so far in the One-Day Cup.
Coulter-Nile, like Hazlewood, has been kept in cotton wool so far but is expected to play a major role for Western Australia in the second half of the tournament.
Circumstances were already against Siddle given the Australian selectors’ penchant for pace, which all his rivals offer, and the fact the first two Tests against New Zealand are on the fastest pitches in world cricket. Now his lack of state cricket looks set to kill off his Test comeback.
The Bushrangers’ non-selection of Siddle clearly is grating on Lehmann, who also gave a verbal slap to Saker over the Victorian coach’s recent comments on Pattinson.
Saker, the former England bowling coach, said Australia would be “mad” to field Pattinson in the Test team before Christmas, saying the young quick needs time to build fitness and confidence in his remodelled action.
Lehmann responded testily, telling media that Saker “should concentrate on coaching Victoria and leave us to pick the side for Australia”.
Whether or not Saker will have the pleasure of fielding Pattinson in the Victorian Shield team over the next two months, his rejection of Siddle as a one-day player looks likely to ensure the veteran will be available for Shield duty.