Veteran Australian fast bowler Peter Siddle has once again turned out for his country at International level in the first Test against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday (October 7), saying it was a nice reward of his years of hard work off the pitch at domestic cricket.
The 33-year-old specialist right-arm fast-medium bowler returned to the international arena after a gap of two years when he was recalled to the Australian side for the two-Test series against Pakistan.
Insisting he never gave up hope of representing Australia again, Siddle made an impressive comeback with the ball, as the pacer conceded only 23 runs and dismissed centurion Mohammad Hafeez in his 15 overs that he bowled in the Day 1 of the first Test in Dubai.
As per reports in ICC’s official website, he said, “I've always dreamed of playing for Australia again in the last few years, but I've concentrated on just performing wherever I played. Today was a nice reward for the time I've put in off the park and all the other teams I've played for in the last 18 months to get back out there and pull on the Baggy Green and walk out there with those three guys starting their journey.”
Siddle explained, “The first Test (back after a break) is always hard, you use up so much energy building up for that match, building up for that first leap. Day one is usually the hardest because you're so hyped to get into it. To only go for [a few] runs at the back end of a day when a team is none down at tea, that's a tremendous effort from the whole group to be able to restrict them to that.”
However, Australia looked down and out of touch in the first two sessions, as Pakistan made a strong start, lost only three wickets at 255, though the tourists lately come back into the fame, took all three wickets for 56 runs in the final session, and Siddle is thrilled by his team's late resurgence in Dubai.
Siddle signed off by saying, “It's always a tough challenge going over to the different Asian conditions and digging in with the heat, but the boys handled it really well – today was one of the cooler days we've had since we've been here. It was well-toiled by us and you look at it at tea time, it could've been a lot worse … To get wickets along the way, it showed the hard work's paying off.”
(Input: International Cricket Council)
