Patient Siddle happy to play waiting game

Peter Siddle has spent a lot of time over the past 12 months watching.

He watched his Test teammates weather a Brendon McCullum storm in Christchurch to re-gain Test cricket's world number one ranking.

He watched Victoria claim their second-straight Sheffield Shield crown, a moon boot strapped to his leg as the Bushrangers triumphed in the final against South Australia. 

Image Id: 20DE584EF3C442258C56C520D7392B48 Image Caption: Peter Siddle looks on from the sidelines // Getty Images

And he watched Australia collapse in the heat of Colombo and the cold of Hobart, rejuvenate in Adelaide and then take on India in a series that, while only halfway through, has already been one of the most engaging this century.

And throughout it all, Siddle has played just five matches. FIVE.

Five matches squeezed out in less than a month before his summer of cricket ended in early November, well before summer had officially begun.

Despite so much watching and so little playing, the Victorian has stayed resolutely upbeat throughout, even now when the prospect of simply bowling again remains some way off into the future.

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But missing out on what he's devoted his life to for the better part of two decades has certainly left a void.

"I've been pretty positive," Siddle told cricket.com.au this week having made the decision to officially throw a frustrating 2016-17 season on the scrapheap.

"I'm good like that, nothing really gets to me. I guess the years of playing cricket, you always have little setbacks with injury and missing cricket at different stages. It makes it a little bit easier to take in when you get older.

"So I've been able to stay pretty level.

"It's not so much the fact that I'm missing out on my teams winning (that's frustrating), it's the fact that I'm not playing.

"I don't think I've played this little cricket in an 18-month window since I was an 11-year-old kid and was just starting out.

"That's the most frustrating thing, not playing the game that you love and your profession.

"But mentally I'm pretty good. I'm in a good place and I've got some good people around me who give me good support."

Having broken down during the Perth Test last November, Siddle had been confident of a return in the back half of the KFC Big Bash League, and possibly even joining his Test teammates on their current Indian crusade.

But with his back stubbornly refusing to heal, he's opted instead to give this season away and target the beginning of next summer, with the obvious goal being a return to Test cricket when England roll into town.

The decision to rest properly now and re-launch later in the year is based on recent experience; Siddle says he was "chasing his tail" at the start of the 2016-17 season as he tried to regain his Test spot, his haste resulting in another injury and another long stretch of frustration.

The obvious downside to playing the long game is that with every match Siddle doesn't play, his rivals for a spot in the Test XI are putting their name forward.

And the candidates to partner Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for the resumption of Ashes hostilities on November 23 are already lining up.

James Pattinson is three Shield games in to yet another comeback from injury and has already shown signs that he's lost none of the fearsome pace and lethal outswing that has earned him 70 wickets in just 17 Tests.

Pat Cummins, the prodigal son of Australian cricket, returned with a bang to Shield cricket last week, taking eight wickets and earning an immediate recall to the Test squad to replace the injured Starc. 

Jackson Bird collected 13 wickets in three Tests over the summer and remains one of the country's most consistent performers, while the likes of Chadd Sayers, Jason Behrendorff, Chris Tremain and even Simon Mackin have put their hand up in Shield cricket this season.

So where does this leave Siddle, often unfairly thrust into the workhorse category of fast bowler, and will turn 33 midway through the first Ashes Test at the Gabba in November?

"I've shown that when I'm at 100 per cent (fitness), I'm one of the first picked and my record speaks for itself," he says with the confidence that stems from having 211 Test wickets to his name. 

"So that stuff looks after itself and that's what (this decision to rest) came down to. I need to get the body right because next summer is massive for Australian and state cricket.

"So it's just a matter of being in a good position and fit and that'll give me the best opportunity.

"Those challenges between the group of six or seven bowlers is only going to be good for Australian cricket."

It's a response that's typical of Siddle's trademark verve, much-loved by his teammates and on full display when he continued to bowl on a sweltering Perth day last November, despite his crumbling back screaming at him to give in.

Siddle freely admits that rushing to be available for the first Test of the summer was a step or three too far, and it's resulted in the better part of a year on the sidelines thinking about it.

Thinking, watching and waiting.

"You do think about it a bit, but I can't really worry about it," he says when asked if he's reflected much about the ill-fated decision to play in Perth.

"Yes, it might have been too soon but I was feeling good up until pretty much once the game started.

"It's a hard one. In hindsight, I shouldn't have played but it's very rare as a fast bowler that you're feeling good.

"But the body was feeling good and it just came down to (the fact that) I hadn't done the work. A couple of extra Shield games or at least one extra Shield game might have put me in a better position.

"But oh well. That's part of professional sport and I have to live with it."

It's a mistake Siddle is determined not to make again as he prepares for a long, cold off-season of rehabilitation.

Another winter of watching and waiting for his chance to play again.