Bird cranks up pace for Perth Test

Tasmania quick Jackson Bird says a few “technical changes” during the pre-season has increased his bowling speed as he aims to cement a Test bowling spot this summer.

After starring in his last Test, in which he took 5-59 against New Zealand in Christchurch in February, Bird was forced to sit on the sidelines while his speedster siblings Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood toiled away on the unforgiving Sri Lankan wickets this winter.

With Australia’s selectors understandably opting for a twin-spin attack – and relying on allrounder Mitchell Marsh as the third seam bowler – on the spin-friendly tracks of the subcontinent, there was no room for Bird to continue his second coming in the Baggy Green. 

While the conditions back home are much more suited to the line, length and bounce Bird delivers metronomically, there has been one string missing from the lanky quick’s bow.

One that saw him practically rubbed out of Test selection last summer despite taking 40 Sheffield Shield wickets in eight matches with a strike rate (19.50) better than any bowler with a least a dozen scalps.

Australian pitches, especially in modern times with drop-in wickets and the desire to stretch Tests five days, have become increasingly flat and benign, to the point where express pace is a significant advantage.

It’s why injured Western Australia quick Nathan Coulter-Nile (who had barely played any form of cricket let alone at first-class level in the lead-up to the summer) and Victoria’s Scott Boland (capable of reaching 145kph) were vaulted ahead of Bird in the pace pecking order.

Ultimately, neither quick made their Test debut, with Bushrangers fast bowler James Pattinson partnering Hazlewood and Peter Siddle for the back-end of the summer in the wake of Mitchell Johnson’s retirement, Starc’s ankle injury in the Adelaide day-night Test, and the selection of left-arm orthodox spinner Stephen O’Keefe for the SCG finale. 

However, on the seamer-friendly pitches in New Zealand Bird was a tailor-made choice, helping Australia briefly reclaim the ICC world No.1 Test team ranking after beating the hosts 2-0.

Now back on home turf, with no Johnson, Coulter-Nile, Pattinson or Patrick Cummins (who is on a gradual return from injury) and boasting the mantle of third incumbent fast bowler, Bird is right in line to take on South Africa in Perth starting November 3.

And pace won’t be a problem.

"I feel like the ball is coming out really well," Bird told cricket.com.au after Tasmania’s upset Matador BBQs One-Day Cup win over NSW Blues on Sunday.

"I’ve worked on a few technical things with Damien Wright and I feel like I’ve got a yard of pace since probably six months ago … that’s what it feels like.

"I feel like there’s a big bag waiting around the corner for me. Hopefully I can get that in the next couple of games." 

Bird will likely have to fight off Boland and South Australian pair Joe Mennie and Daniel Worrall following their stellar 2015-16 Shield seasons in which they were one and two on the wicket-takers tally respectively and earned one-day international berths in the ongoing limited-overs series in South Africa.

But Bird, 29, says it’s now time to make that first-change bowling spot his own, and it starts in less than a month in the nation’s west.

"There’s lots of good fast bowlers around at the moment," Bird said when asked if he thought he was a certainty for the first Test against the Proteas.

"I’d like to think I’d be in with a chance to be selected. I feel like I’m bowling well and if I was selected I wouldn’t let the team down.

"I’ve just got to concentrate on the next couple of weeks and hopefully I get the phone call.

"I feel like I’m ready to go and I feel like it’s a good opportunity to make that third seamer position my own."