Bowling Shane, but you weren't right this time

Australia played the role of respectful guests when we so generously relinquished the Ashes in Trent Bridge.

“It was nice but it left funny marks on the mantlepiece” the batsmen seemed to say as they collectively spun around and hit the stumps as hard as they could with their bat. “We’ll let you borrow it for a couple of years but for the moment it’s casting a funny shadow on the world cup” we boasted as we selflessly nicked the ball to the cordon, time and time again.

Australia made two changes to their fearsome trent bridge line up for the fifth and crucial ‘dead rubber’ Test. Mitch Marsh was reinstated after Darren
‘Boof’ Lehmann publicly admitted it was a mistake to drop the all-rounder for the Trent Bridge massacre, and any man who shares his name with a Yowie deserves total respect for admitting his faults.

The second change was a like-for-like replacement for the injured Josh Hazlewood. When Cricket Australia confirmed on Thursday evening that the tall right armer wouldn’t be fit for The Oval the expectation was Pat Cummins would come in.

He didn’t. Peter Siddle was preferred despite indifferent form over the last 12 months; the cries of meat lovers and quick bowlers were heard around the country.

The sheikh of tweak didn’t help his fellow Victorian or the selectors by unloading his latest ‘steaming pile of Warne’ onto the pair seemingly as soon as he grabbed the mic on day one.

But were Warne’s typically forthright comments warranted? Warne’s reputation and game intelligence demands some respect – when he isn’t talking about pizza that is – and when he speaks, people listen.

Warne demanded Pat Cummins get the call up insisting he was ready to play, and that Siddle was a spent force. With respect to a man who has only 708 more Test wickets than myself, the selectors made the right call.

Judging by the suppository of all wisdom, social media, Cummins is the popular vote – but you must remember that I write articles on the internet; so I must also be very smart.

Peter Siddle has 192 Test wickets, the highest proportion of which have come against the old enemy (67). Sure about a thousand of those wickets have been Kevin Pietersen, but it points to just the kind of bowler who thrives in English conditions.

With a two of exceptions – one of which was his first Ashes series in England – Siddle has never been a prolific wicket taker. He was however key to one of Australia’s most dominant bowling performances of the last decade. Siddle was
‘the anchor’ in Australia’s 2013-14 Ashes whitewash as Harris and Johnson went crazy for wickets.

His ability to tie down an end may be as unfashionable as Chris Rogers’ fiddling and prodding, but it is no less crucial to successful Test cricket.

Detractors of the once-stocky Victorian suggest that his meat abstinence has detracted from his pace – a frankly absurd physiological accusation – but both Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad struggle to push 140 and have had Australia’s hands full for about a month now.

What Anderson and Broad do bring is the right line and length for English conditions, just enough movement, and English pitches do the rest. What Australia hasn’t done is hit the right line and length frequently enough.

Siddle is a line and length specialist. Looking at the scorecard from the last two Tests, 25 of Australia’s dismissals have been caught in the slips cordon – including a staggering 16 of Australia’s 20 hard-yakka, true-blue wickets at Trent Bridge.

This suggests that the ball wasn’t hooping around, whacking the front pad or pinging into the timber, but rather moving from a good length and clipping the outside of the bat.

Josh Hazlewood was arguably the bowler who was supposed to provide the same challenge for the English batsmen, but he was unreliable (whether he was suffering with injury is open to debate) and Peter Siddle is the Australian bowler most likely to replicate what Broad and Anderson can offer.

Pat Cummins could be, as my dad suggests, “the real deal.” He has pace, bounce, swing, and there’s enough evidence to suggest he can bowl with metronomic control. What he isn’t at the moment, no matter what Warnie tells you, is Test ready.

The 22 year old has been a rare sight with any sort of red ball since his debut in 2011. His strict rehabilitation from injury has involved a huge amount of limited overs cricket, but the last time he bowled in the long form was that one Test against South Africa.

Cummins has played two tour games over the last month, taking 4 wickets. A fair return, but these were tour games. Cummins has a long term future and should be ready to go in the Australian summer, and while this is a dead rubber, Australia stands to gain very little.

Peter Siddle is hardly a sentimental choice; if Australia were looking to bid their cricketers a nice farewell (because realistically unless Siddle takes a huge bag he won’t be starting in Bangladesh) then Brad Haddin should be in the team.

Peter Siddle isn’t a choice for the future, he isn’t a strike bowler, he isn’t the answer to the job crisis. But he is a pace bowler, and he might just be the pace bowler we need right now.