‘Focused’ Siddle says no to ODIs to give best shot in Tests
Submitted by Rajiv Dhoot on Wed, 12/12/2012 - 09:48.
Sydney, Dec 12 : Australia fast bowler Peter Siddle has put his one-day international aspirations on the back burner for the next 13 months in a bid to ensure he is at his total best for Test matches against India and the end-to-end Ashes series.
Siddle has not played a limited-overs international for two years, while last summer he was striving to reclaim his ODI squad berth this summer he has shunned all limited-overs matches, even for Victoria.
Siddle is also the only player centrally contracted to Cricket Australia to not also hold a Big Bash League deal.
Siddle is part of Melbourne Stars'' supplementary list but that purely as back up in case the team qualifies for next year''s Champions League Twenty20 tournament and is beset by injuries.
"At the moment I didn''t want to play in the BBL. It was part of wanting to concentrate on Tests, the same thing I spoke about earlier in the year leading into the Test matches, that I wanted to miss the Ryobi [Cup] games and concentrate on the red ball," the Age quoted Siddle, as saying.
"With the 12 months we''ve got coming up from now it is such a big time for us as a Test team that the best thing for me was to focus on that, try and bowl as many overs as I can throughout training, in games and get the body obviously very ready and raring to go for Test cricket.
That was my plan and that''s the one I want to stick with," he added.
"Hopefully after this year I can have a good crack at one-day cricket again and see how I go but obviously there is a lot on the line for us as a Test team and wanting to get back to No.
1 so that''s the plan I want to go with," he said. (ANI)
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