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Peter Siddle has bowled with remarkable accuracy this final Ashes Test to push Australia within reach of an innings victory. But those claiming he was hard done by not to have been playing all series are re-writing history.
As Siddle has displayed a level of control not previously seen among the Australian bowlers this series, hordes of Australian fans and even pundits have started blaming the selectors for not picking him weeks ago.
Some have even gone so far as to say his non-selection prior to this fifth Test is a major reason Australia have handed back the Ashes.
While we can never know what would have eventuated had Siddle been picked earlier, it seems fanciful to suggest he could have prevented Australia from being flogged in the third and fourth Tests.
It was Australia’s abominable batting which cruelled them in those matches, not the absence of Siddle.
The funny thing is that the Victorian’s name barely was mentioned before the fourth Test of this series.
There were very few people advocating for Siddle to be picked before that, despite the many who now claim they wanted him in the Australian XI all along.
As obvious as Siddle’s inclusion may seem in hindsight, let us not pretend that he has been making an overwhelming case for Test selection.
Since shedding the best part of 10kmh in pace about two years ago, Siddle had become far less penetrative.
He remained a consistent and frugal bowler but simply was not incisive enough at Test level.
In his previous 12 Tests, he had taken just 26 wickets at an average of 45. The stat which best illustrated his dramatic reduction in effectiveness was his strike rate.
He was taking 96 balls per wicket, which is almost double what you expect of a Test pace bowler.
He rarely produced poor spells in those Tests but hardly ever looked threatening either.
Those claiming he’s been shafted by the selectors this series must not have been following Siddle’s efforts in the tour matches.
In four games against some extremely weak county batting lineups, he had taken only four wickets at the lofty average of 56.
Again highlighting Siddle’s lack of penetration was his exceedingly high strike rate of 120 in these matches.
By comparison, in his four tour games, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh had snared 12 wickets at an average of 19 and a strike rate of 30.
But, of course, this all is now in the past. The upshot of this Test is that Siddle may well have revived his international career.
His name had been mentioned repeatedly in the Australian press as one of eight players in this Test squad who were considered unlikely to play again beyond this series.
Not since the first Test of the last Ashes in England more than two years ago has Siddle bowled this well for Australia.
With Ryan Harris having retired, and Mitchell Johnson’s career tinged with a degree of uncertainty, the 30-year-old Siddle could be kept around as the senior pro in Australia’s otherwise young pace battery.
That’s if he can keep bowling with the kind of incisiveness seen here at the Oval.