Lehmann to Saker: Stick to your own job

Cricket365
October 15, 2015

Australia coach Darren Lehmann has been left unimpressed with the way State side Victoria are handling fast bowlers James Pattinson and Peter Siddle, and has advised coach David Saker to stick to his own job.

Bushrangers' Saker had opined recently that Australia should not pick injury prone Pattinson for the Tests against New Zealand next month, and Lehmann said that while everyone had Pattinson's health in mind, it was not up to Saker.

Lehmann said: "I think David Saker should concentrate on coaching Victoria, and leave us to pick the side for Australia.

"And if James Pattinson is in and ready to go we think highly of him. We won't rush him back if he's not right, he's got to be ready to play."

As for Siddle, he has not been picked to play in the Matador One Day Cup, which left Lehmann annoyed as well: "Haven't seen him [Siddle] bowl.

"It would be good for him to be playing but we can't control what Victoria do, it would be nice to see him play because we've got a Test match coming up, so we'll just have to wait and see.

"That [one Sheffield Shield game] is probably all he's going to get, isn't it?"

One bowler Lehmann will be seeing is Mitchell Johnson, who had been set to miss the cancelled tour to Bangladesh anyway, after a long Ashes series. 'Boof' is hoping that Johnson gets plenty of domestic cricket in before the Kiwi Tests.

He added of Johnson: "He looks fit and strong, that's what we did it for, and he's got all his niggles out of the way.

"I was looking forward to seeing him bowl right now, but he looks like he's fresh and ready to go. I think that's when he bowls his best – he's running in, he's strong, he's fit.

"Towards the back end [of the Ashes] he got a bit tired, he played a lot of cricket, the same with Josh and Mitchell Starc, they got tired. This break's been good for them, some one day cricket's not bad because it's 10 overs and you can have a look at how they're going.

"Mitchell Johnson will play this week for WA I would think. He's getting back to where we need him to be, and we should have a fully fit squad to pick from."