Ashes 2019: Australia’s rhythm guitarist Peter Siddle justifies his selection with scalp of Joe Root

The Australian bowler was fiercely accurate and claimed his four major Test scalp in four innings

It wasn’t difficult to work out where it was all going. Charging in after lunch, Peter Siddle was wicketless. Mitch Starc, the Twelfth Man at Birmingham this week, ran out between overs to deliver a drink. Grumble, grumble, Starc. He-hits-you-miss, grumble. The Bananaman just isn’t fast enough. Too old too, don’t you know. Sure, he was the unlikely best supporting actor yesterday, but the hero-to-villain narrative was quickly building.

Before lunch, Siddle was fiercely accurate with figures to match in a six over burst at Rory Burns and Joe Root. As the Hawkeye ball-tracking showed, he hit a relentless fourth-stump line at both men, 72 per cent of deliveries landing on what CricViz define as a good length. In other words, he was doing his job.

Four years ago, Australia learned the hard way what happens when accuracy is not prioritised. When Siddle returned for a solitary Test at the end of that misadventure, he blitzed with 6/67. This time, he was picked to take wickets as he does at Essex, but also to hold the show together as required. Australia’s rhythm guitarist.

Even so, Siddle’s figures read none-fa. And what does it mean if you have none-fa? It means, in the reductive way that bowlers are so often assessed, you’re not any good.

In his second spell, straight after lunch, technology denied him Root’s wicket as it had James Pattinson before lunch due to the slightest inside edge. Twice as many of his offerings were hitting the stumps as he shifted into a more aggressive framework, the speed radar often topping 85mph in those six overs. Burns flashed at him through where third slip might have been. Only 22 runs had come from his 12 sets across the two shifts, but it was zero in the other column.

Tim Paine had the best vantage point for how well the 65-Test veteran was bowling, though, and had him back into the attack after just nine overs of recovery. Sensing Root was going to go at him having just passed 50, that experience kicked in when mixing up his delivery points. From the final ball, Root went with hard hands and returned a catch, Siddle sticking out his right hand when down in the follow-through to pull the reflex catch in. The second-wicket stand of 132 broken at last. For the first time in four Test innings, he had a big scalp.

The positive influence Siddle brings to the dressing room is something that coach Justin Langer has emphasised repeatedly since unexpectedly bringing him out of the wilderness for a tour to the UAE last year. That couldn’t be any more important than for another man making his comeback in this fixture, James Pattinson. The pair are five years apart but have shared an awful lot. Both products of the Dandenong Cricket Club and Victorian machine, it was Siddle sharing the new ball with Pattinson when the latter took an electrifying five-wicket bag on Test debut as a 21-year-old some eight years ago. When Siddle took his Ashes hat-trick in 2010, so the Pattinson story goes, he leapt out of his car and danced in the street.

Joe Root is caught out by Australia's Peter Siddle (Reuters) (Action Images via Reuters)

Pattinson has a role to play alongside his close mate: to be the menacing quick with all the trimmings; to complement his consistency with pace and shock-value. When picking up Jason Roy via Steve Smith’s safe hands at second slip - his first Test wicket in 1256 days – the brute’s response was his trademark roar and point like he had just nodded in an extra-time winner. Later, when blowing Joe Denly’s pad off after tea with a ball change that brought new swing – allowing the spearhead to hoop away before jagging in; his best trick – the Australians were back in business with fortune trending their way as it didn’t earlier.

It was doubly important that Siddle and Pattinson both did what was prescribed of them because this was a very rare day where Pat Cummins, for the most part, didn’t. The reason he is ranked the number one bowler in the world is because he is a neat hybrid of both of the aforementioned Victorians, combining explosive pace with annoying accuracy. But the ball change suited him too, winning Jos Buttler’s edge not long after Denly fell. For each of the nine balls Cummins had bowled in that spell, it was Siddle standing with him plotting the plan. There is something to be said for wise counsel in a game so often built on nuance.

Australia's Peter Siddle and James Pattinson (Reuters) (Action Images via Reuters)

That was the end of the Australian surge for the afternoon, Ben Stokes floating to the crease and continuing where he left off at Lord’s three Sundays ago. Adding 73 with Rory Burns by the close, a healthy lead for the home side is likely. But this was no day in the dirt, either. It could have been, but instead, visitors kept it together for long enough that they have ample to work with over the weekend.

Yes, any alternative reality can be created about those who weren’t picked this week, but those who were did exactly as they were meant to with Siddle integral despite not taking home a bag of wickets. And that’s just how it goes sometimes.