MELBOURNE: Australian pacer Peter Siddle doesn’t want to be rested and said he would like to strangle India in the fourth and the final Test in Adelaide starting January 24.
Standing in front of legendary Dennis Lillee statue at the MCG, Siddle, who is now the spearheading the attack, said he is in the form of his life and wants to be a part of the team that is on verge of inflicting a 4-0 defeat on India.
“Any opportunity to play for Australia is a great honour and I definitely don’t want to give my spot up to anyone else and let them have the opportunity. I want to play (in Adelaide). But we’ll have to see what happens in the future – whether it’s the one-dayers, in the West Indies, that sort of thing. We’ll have the discussions, but my thoughts are definitely to play,” said Siddle, who has 17 wickets at an average of 19.58 from the series.
Siddle said India have succumbed to the pressure and was surprised that the third Test in Perth got over in two-and-a-half days.
“The biggest thing so far in the series is the pressure we have been building against them. We have strangled them and I’d like to be part of doing that again. I’ve pulled up really good. It’s always nice to finish up in just over two days. It was quite a surprise that we got it done so early and it was good to get home for a few days,” he said.
The Victorian has made rapid strides since being dropped in Sri Lanka last September.
“I was disappointed in Sri Lanka when I was dropped. It hurt. I had to try harder, and I did. Consistency and patience is working and sharing the load with the other boys and leading them is good fun,” he said.
Siddle credited his success to Australia’s new bowling coach Craig McDermott. “Obviously he (McDermott) played a lot of Test cricket and took a lot of wickets himself and just that knowledge on how to get batsmen out, how to go about it in different conditions has helped tremendously,” he said.
“He hasn’t done a lot with our actions or the technical side of things – it’s all about what you’ve got is what you’ve got and to use that,” he said. (PTI)