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Peter Siddle is presently ranked number five in the world on the ICC rankings (on the same rankings Graeme Swann is ranked six and Jimmy Anderson is ranked seven) and the national selection panel will most likely pick him for the first Ashes Test.
Assuming everyone is fit, I wouldn’t select Peter Siddle for the first Test of the Ashes. I’d favour Ryan Harris, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird and Nathan Lyon.
A lot of Siddle’s popularity has to do with a lionhearted reputation that is founded in fact, not fiction.
When Australia were a bowler down in Adelaide last summer (Pattinson was injured, again), Siddle sent down 33 fourth-innings overs, looking for a win that might have lifted Australia to a series leading position against the world’s number one side.
He returned figures of 6-195 from 63.5 overs. Rodney Hogg said the spell “evoked images of Lillee in his prime”.
He’s got Tendulkar out five times and his batting recently has also won many fans. In India he hit consecutive 50s and outshone Australia’s much maligned top order.
He has even inked himself with a Southern Cross tattoo (or ‘Aussie Swazie’).
After the second Test against Sri Lanka, when Siddle again excelled, our fearless leader Michael Clarke said, “If everyone had the heart he has, we’d be back to number one in the world.”
That’s huge praise. But I just don’t believe it.
And I don’t think Siddle is a good pick for English conditions. There is no need to be ‘lionhearted’ and bowl all day if you, instead, take wickets, which incidentally is a bowler’s chief prerogative.
Scoring 50s in a losing cause is also admirable but, again, that’s not why bowlers are picked.
The guts of Roarers’ posts about why Siddle shouldn’t make the first Ashes Test include:
1. Siddle is not a smart bowler.
2. Siddle does not swing the ball.
3. Siddle does not bowl a consistently full length.
4. Siddle’s figures in England and against England aren’t great.
5. Siddle is a vegetarian and therefore has no soul.
What is a smart bowler? Mike Hussey recently called Dale Steyn a smart bowler and had this to say, “He’s looking to swing the new ball and as it gets older he’s looking to bowl cutters and slower balls and he can still bowl with good pace as well.”
He went on to surmise that Steyn was a playful pony with more than one trick. He was able to adapt and improvise and take wickets regardless of the state of the pitch, ball or game. He could identify a batsman’s weaknesses, set him up and execute a plan based upon those weaknesses.
I’m not saying Siddle doesn’t get wickets. He does. He can bowl all day. He can chop wood… really fast.
But he is not renowned for his guile and I’ve never heard any of his teammates, not even after he got a hat-trick, call Sids a “smart bowler”. Google it. You won’t find squat.
Speaking candidly of his own performances leading up to the third Test in India, Siddle said: “Before the
Test, I was disappointed with my performances and what I was lacking was building pressure and setting up good partnerships for the team… I went a bit better in this match with that side of things. There was still a loose ball and too many boundaries that I am picky with myself on. But it is nice to come away with the rewards.”
He got 5-71 off 29.1 overs in the first innings. Those are great figures for a quick on the subcontinent. There is seemingly nothing but gold in those figures. But India still racked up 499 that innings, which is one of the reasons they ended up winning by six wickets.
My concern about Siddle is that he is not the kind of bowler who bowls sides out cheaply. In 41 Tests, Siddle has taken seven five-fers. Only once in 74 attempts has he rolled a side.
Now I’m not suggesting Jackson Bird is going to roll sides but he is highly economical, averages around 19 runs per wicket and in Tests and first class cricket he averages a wicket every 39 balls.
Peter Siddle’s strike rate in Tests is 57 – once again, not bad, but Harris’ is 49 and Pattinson’s is 40 and a bowler’s primary role is to take wickets.
In the last Ashes series in England, Siddle picked up 20 wickets at an average of 30.80. In the same series Mitchell Johnson (who was roundly ridiculed for his efforts) picked up 20 wickets at 32. I’d suggest neither of them did a great job.
I don’t know what new-age practices Siddle gets up to with his vegetarian girlfriend but he is not a big swinger of the ball. In England swing and reverse swing are essential tools for success.
The pitches in England are slower than in Australia and so banging the ball in on a back of a length will not work for you. Doing this time and time again will allow the patient accumulators – Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Nick Compton and Joe Root – to patiently accumulate and bore us all to death.
The best I’ve ever seen Siddle bowl was when Craig McDermott was our bowling supremo (and not some guy from Tasmania who once tied up his own shoelace). Sids was pitching the ball up and getting a little outswing here and there.
Sadly he is not bowling that consistent full length of late. Last season he was back to back of a length, plugging away, waiting for the batsman to make a mistake rather than forcing one.
With Australia’s wobbly batting (the best we can hope for is around 300 in the first dig) and pace bowling purportedly our strength, we need to bowl England out for sub-par totals.
New Zealand showed over five Tests this is infinitely possible. They also showed building pressure is critically important.
Drying up the runs and building pressure is the oldest rule in the book and Jackson Bird can do that better than Siddle. Pattinson and Harris can take more wickets than he does too.
So there you have it Roarers, I’ll show zero faith in the ICC rankings and leave Siddle out of the first Test.
With injuries to our band-aid brigade inevitable, he’ll no doubt get a chance to prove me wrong later in the series.
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