Australia coach Justin Langer has revealed that fast bowler James Pattinson will replace injured Josh Hazlewood for the Boxing Day Test against New Zealand, and not Peter Siddle. Siddle was called up after Hazlewood’s hamstring injury but Langer said Siddle is unlikely to make it to the playing XI unless there are several injuries.

“James Pattinson, we know what he brings to the team; he brings so much energy, bowls good pace, he’s played a lot at the MCG,” Langer said in Perth. “While we’re not going to name the side now he certainly will be a frontrunner. “You’ve got to manage it as well. Michael Neser played the last Shield game, James Pattinson the one before that. You’ve just got to manage it.”

Former Australia legends Shane Warne and Geoff Lawson didn’t really happy with the selection of Siddle in the 14-member squad in the first place. But Langer backed the veteran’s selection in the team.

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“Everyone’s got a different opinion on it, that’s OK,” he said. “I don’t think we should discriminate against Peter Siddle who played the last Ashes Test match. We’re all about winning this Test series and we believe, if required, he would be the person to do that.”

“We’ve got some other young bowlers who are unavailable because of injury. For example, Sean Abbott, he’s going into the one-day side so we want to see him play Big Bash cricket. He got man of the match in the last T20 game, we want him to keep playing Big Bash so he’s playing white-ball cricket. A lot of thinking goes into these things, it’s not just what you see on the surface. A lot of thinking goes into it and we think Sidds is the right person for this Test match,” Justin Langer concluded.