Peter Siddle

Peter Matthew Siddle is every captain’s dream - he is a workhorse who just charges down, extract bounce off any track, that too at high 150ks. If you still can’t draw that then just google “Peter Siddle’s favourite Test wickets in Australia”, you’ll watch him breaking Sachin Tendulkar through the gates. 

The speedster is a former Australian cricketer, who currently plays for Victoria and Essex domestically and represents Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League. He played Test cricket from 2008 to 2019, before retiring from international cricket in December 2019. 

Born in Victoria’s Traralgon, Siddle made his first-class debut back in 2005 and just took a couple of seasons, before landing onto the international stage. In 2008, the pacer from Victoria was on the flight to India to play Test cricket. He made his debut at Mohali, where he banged one at Gautam Gambhir’s head, before scalping his maiden Test wicket - Tendulkar. A young Siddle introduced himself on the world stage with some fearsome pace and accuracy to become ​​a regular in the Test team.

Soon the pacer was rewarded with his ODI and T20I caps, against New Zealand in 2009. Later that year, he was also named the ICC Emerging Player of the Year, but then in the summer of ‘09, he got injured with a stress fracture in his back that kept Siddle away from cricket for a long time. The speedster returned in Australian colours during the Ashes of 2010-11 when he made history by becoming the ninth Australian to break a Test hat-trick, that moment came on the opening day of the Gabba Test. While the cherry on top was, it was Siddle’s 26th birthday. 

The Traralgon-born was the heartthrob for Australia during that Ashes and bettered his feat when they whitewashed England in the 2012-13 Ashes. However, the proudest moment of Siddle’s Test career came during the Boxing Day Test of 2012. The seamer was bowling fireballs in front of his home crowd. He bowled Rahul Dravid through the gap between bat and pad, alas it was a No-Ball, but soon redeemed himself by bowling an exact same delivery to Tendulkar, but legal. 

From there on, the seamer remained a regular in the longest format, until the defeat to South Africa in November 2016. Meanwhile, he grabbed eight five-wicket hauls and took his 200th Test wicket in November 2015. However, after the embarrassing loss against the Proteas, Siddle was framed as a scapegoat, which led to his departure. 

Two years later, in 2018, the Victorian was recalled during the tour to the UAE to play against Pakistan, later he was picked to play three more Ashes Tests in 2019. Siddle made an inspiring comeback in ODI cricket, after a gap of nine years, later that season. However, he hung up his boots in December 2019. 

At 36, Siddle is more than happy to serve in the Big Bash League and play county cricket in England. The veteran is looked more of a T20 specialist, but his hard lines and lengths still make him a hard opponent with the ball, across all formats. 

(As of July 2021)