“If I went over there and did my back again or something, it would be not an ideal thing for the third time”
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Prior to the ongoing Test series in India, Australia would have been brooding over the best candidates to make up their pace attack.
But, after left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc was ruled out for the last two Tests, Australia began scurrying to look for potential options to replace their pace spearhead.
Veteran fast bowler Peter Siddle was still out of action with a back injury and the young duo of Pat Cummins and James Pattinson have both battled through a string of injuries and have not played much red-ball cricket as of late.
But, in the end, the Baggy Greens opted to select Cummins as he has a superb showing with the ball in the limited overs formats the past summer.
However, Pattinson has revealed that he did not want to be considered for selection prior to the series and after Starc got injured due to the fact that he has broken down on numerous occasions after rushing back to international cricket with little match practice behind him.
As a result of that, he did not want to make the same mistake again and decided to focus on plying his trade in the Sheffield Shield.
“I had a chat with the selectors before this series, saying that I just wanted to really get through this Shield season,” Pattinson told RSN Radio. “I know the last two times I’ve done something like this, flown over to a series where it’s in the balance and there’s the potential of me bowling close to 40, 50 overs, which I have – in South Africa in 2014 I did it, and then last year I did the same thing in New Zealand, going in with not a lot of cricket, and it hasn’t really turned out very well for me.
“We didn’t want to make that same mistake again, because at 26, if I went over there and did my back again or something, it would be not an ideal thing for the third time. It was one thing that I didn’t want to do, and the selectors and physios weren’t too keen on trying to rush me back this time. They’ve given me the best possible chance of getting back and playing three, four, five Shield games and getting confidence in my body this way.”
Pattinson added that he found himself in a similar place as Cummins earlier in his career as he had the same eagerness and desire to get back to playing international cricket as soon as possible after recovering from an injury.
But, having become a lot more mature and wiser, the 26-year-old now knows better than to rush back as it poses a risk of another spell on the sidelines.
“It’s a hard thing – when you’ve got the talent of Pat Cummins, it’s a hard thing, especially when the series is 1-1,” he said. “And that’s the thing that I saw the time when I went to South Africa, and last year, you want to do everything you possibly can for your country and help win, and you don’t care if you get injured.
“That’s the sort of thing I’ve done in the past, and now that I’m a bit older, you can’t really afford to do my back again and have another year off at this age. I’m sure Pat will go over and do well and who knows, he’ll probably be fine. But that was the risk that I’ve taken over the last couple of years and it hasn’t paid off, so it didn’t want to do that again.”