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Ten-wicket haul from Jackson Bird sends reminder to Australia selectors
The Australian fast bowler has not played since December 2017, but with Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins not 100% fit he could be in the mix.
Published: Oct 19, 2018, 11:55 AM (IST)
Edited: Oct 19, 2018, 11:55 AM (IST)
Australian quick Jackson Bird has sent the national selectors a timely reminder of his skills, taking ten wickets in Queensland’s 246-run win over Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield.
Bird, who has not played for Australia since the Boxing Day Test in December 2017, followed first-innings figures of 5/35 with 5/42 as the Bulls were dismissed for 93 on Friday morning at the Gabba.
A match haul of 10/77 took Bird has the 300-wicket mark in first-class cricket and should put the 31-year-old’s name into the mix when Australia’s selectors meet to pick the squad for four Tests against Australia in December.
Bird, ostensibly, would currently be behind Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins in the pecking order but none of the three is fully fit. And with Peter Siddle struggling to make an impact in the ongoing Test series with Pakistan in the UAE he could be in line for a recall.
On Thursday, Bird stated that the presence of Siddle and his Queensland team-mates Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett in Australia’s Test squad indicated to him that his chances of playing international cricket were slim.
“The way selectors have gone in this last tour I think I’ll be lucky to play for Australia again,” he said. “They showed their hand … three guys got picked ahead of me on a tour. Six months ago I was on the tours and now I’m not. That’s the way it goes. If I bowl well and get selected so be it, but I’d be very surprised if I did.”
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Bird has 34 wickets in nine Tests between 2012 and 2017. He has been in and out of the Test squad, having toured England in 2013 and then not getting a recall until early 2016 when Australia toured New Zealand. Eight wickets in two Tests were allowed by three more Tests later that year, which brought him 13 wickets. It would be a full year between Bird’s eighth and ninth Tests, both at the MCG. A wicketless outing against England last December has seen him sidelined once again.