After recently making his Test comeback almost two years later, now the 33-year-old Australian pacer Peter Siddle has been selected for the upcoming one-off T20I against the hosts UAE and three-match T20I series against Pakistan in UAE.
Siddle has been added in the pre-decided T20I squad after the left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc has recently picked up a hamstring injury on day two of the ongoing second and final Test of the series against Australia at Abu Dhabi.
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Last time, Siddle appeared for the Australian T20I side on October 31, 2010, against Sri Lanka at Perth. The right-arm pacer has played two T20Is where he has picked up a total of three wickets. In fact, Siddle played his last limited-overs international game on 5 November 2010 against Sri Lanka at Sydney (ODI format).
Earlier this year, Siddle admitted that he has no hope to return in the Australian T20I squad despite some good death performances during the 2017/18 KFC Big Bash League as he put an important mark for his team Adelaide Strikers to win the tournament for the first time ever.
He had told cricket.com.au, “I’d never played a full season of the Big Bash, I’d only ever played games here and there. I’d played a bit of it for Victoria before there was all the T20 hype and it wasn’t as big as it is now. I’d done okay but there wasn’t as much emphasis on the skills.
“It was nice to get through last season’s Big Bash and trial a few new tricks, come up with a few and succeed in the heat of the battle.”
However, the Australian camp feels Starc is okay while he bowled three overs on the day three of the ongoing Abu Dhabi Test match.
On Wednesday (October 17), the T20I skipper Aaron Finch spoke about Starc’s fitness, “It’s just a bit of management of Mitch. Obviously, the conditions are pretty hot, so trying to look after the fast bowler. As far as I know he is (okay). He bowled with enough pace today.”
Initially, Australia had a schedule of three-match T20I series against Pakistan in UAE. Recently, one T20I match has been added prior to that Pakistan series as Australia will play one-off T20I against the hosts UAE on October 22 at Abu Dhabi.
Australia’s T20I squad in UAE 2018/19 tour: Aaron Finch (captain), Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Peter Siddle, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa
