Peter Siddle

With a charging run-up, powerful delivery, worrying bounce and elongated appeal, Peter Siddle was a reassuringly consistent presence in Australia's Test attack and is part of Australia's illustrious 200-Test wickets club. A hard-working, hostile fast bowler who has not always been viewed as the epitome of subtlety, Siddle has been used as an enforcer, a workhorse and at times as the spearhead of Australia's bowling group. But he is also a man of contradictions, a tough rural Victorian who was a competitive woodchopper in his youth, yet since 2012 a vegan whose diet can consist of 15 to 20 bananas a day.

Injuries hampered his early domestic career, with a shoulder reconstruction sidelining him for most of 2006-07 and further shoulder problems troubling him the following season. But he announced himself in the 2007-08 Sheffield Shield final where he took seven wickets with hostile bowling a flat SCG track against a Test-quality NSW batting line-up.

First picked for the tour of India in 2008, Siddle made his Test debut in Mohali and hit Gautam Gambhir in the head with his first ball, before claiming Sachin Tendulkar as his maiden Test wicket. He became a regular in the Test team from that point and in October of 2009, he was named the ICC Emerging Player of the Year, but a quiet home Test summer was followed by a stress fracture in his back, which required lengthy rehabilitation.

His comeback could hardly have been more memorable. At the Gabba on the opening day of the 2010-11 Ashes series, Siddle celebrated his 26th birthday by becoming the ninth Australian to take a Test hat-trick.

Siddle was the heart and soul of the Australian attack, leading them manfully during a period of transition. He was a key contributor to the 5-0 Ashes success in 2013-14. But a preference for out-and-out pace from the selectors led to Siddle losing his spot in the team during the tour of South Africa in early 2014, and he was asked to work on regaining the yard of speed he had lost.

He would play just nine Tests over the next two years as Australia opted for a pace battery over control. His non-selection until the fifth Ashes Test in 2015 proved costly as he claimed six wickets in a winning dead-rubber at the Oval after the series was lost. He took his 200th Test wicket against New Zealand in November 2015 but was cast aside as Australia took a youth policy moving forward following the disastrous home defeat to South Africa.

But surprising T20 form in the BBL for the Adelaide Strikers in their 2017-18 title and then a prolific stint with Essex in the 2018 County Championship made him a tried and trusted option for new coach Justin Langer in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal. He made a surprise return to Test cricket in the UAE after two years and then in ODI cricket in Australia against India, more than eight years after his previous ODI for Australia.
ESPNcricinfo staff