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Pattinson nears return to bowling

Quick to bowl in grade cricket next week

Fast-bowler James Pattinson will ramp up his comeback from a back injury when he returns to the bowling crease in Victorian Premier Cricket next week.

The 24-year-old hasn't bowled a ball in anger since the third Test against South Africa in March, which Australia won to claim the series 2-1 and briefly reclaim the world's No.1 Test ranking.

Soon after that series, Pattinson was diagnosed with a recurrence of stress fractures in his back, the same injury that forced him home early from the 2013 Ashes tour of the UK.

He conceded in June that his return to Test action against the Proteas had been rushed, and vowed to not make the same mistake as he embarked on another long period of rehabilitation.

The right-armer spent the winter strengthening his injured back at the Bupa National Cricket Centre and also making slight changes to his bowling action that he hopes will decrease the chances of long-term injuries in the future.

It’s an approach that has so far been a success for young paceman Pat Cummins, who has returned to the international fold this summer having made slight alterations that he hopes will help avoid the kind of injuries that have plagued his career so far.

Pattinson has played seven matches for his club side Dandenong this season as a batsman only, and next week will return to competitive bowling for the first time in almost nine months.

And he's confident that despite a few minor setbacks during his re-modelling sessions at the Bupa NCC, his patient approach will pay off.  

"I'm looking forward to it, it's been a while," Pattinson told cricket.com.au at the launch of the KFC T20 Big Bash League's charity partnership with The Alannah and Madeline Foundation.

"(I've had) a lot of gym sessions and a lot of running sessions, just working ... on my bowling action.

"Some sessions there weren't going to plan and that's a part of it when you change stuff.

"It doesn't always go to plan and you just have to be really flexible as well.

"(But) everything's going really well at the moment.

"I'm probably ahead of schedule of where I was planning on being and hopefully I can play some cricket leading up to Christmas with Dandenong and get some bowling under my belt and go from there."

The Victorian is one of a handful of prodigious Australian fast-bowlers whose rapid rise to the top in recent years has been held back by the type of injuries that are almost commonplace for young tearaways.

His exact pathway back into Australia's Test team remains unclear - the 2015 Ashes is a tantalising goal - but it's likely, like last summer, that his return to senior cricket will come with Melbourne Renegades in the KFC T20 Big Bash League.

"I don't know how much cricket I'll play back in the Big Bash this year," he said.

"I suppose that'll be up to the physios and the coaches and myself, (we) will sit down when the time comes and see if that's the best lead in to playing Shield cricket.

"So I'll probably just take small steps at the moment.

"I just want to play cricket with Dandenong up until Christmas and hopefully feel good there, get about four or five games with them and after that see what happens."