AUSTRALIAN quick James Pattinson has been cleared to make a Big Bash League comeback with Melbourne Renegades at Etihad Stadium tonight.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Pattinson was named yesterday in a 13-man squad to take on Brisbane Heat, five months after stress fractures in his lower back forced him out of Australia’s Ashes tour in July.
His gradual comeback featured an appearance in Ballarat earlier this month as a batsman for Dandenong in a Victorian Premier Cricket Twenty20 Bush Bash triple-header.
Pattinson told The Courier then he hoped to be back bowling with the Renegades for a camp in Ballarat a week later but his return was then put on hold.
He said that after a break that “felt like years” he was keen to “let it rip”.
“I’ve done a lot of work with my action and getting that right now. Mentally and physically I feel good to go out there and try and bowl fast,” Pattinson said.
“Fast swingers is the key out there in Twenty20 cricket.”
He made no bones about his ambitions to recapture his Test place, but with no Sheffield Shield games before the Australian squad is named for the South African tour, he will have to prove his worth in the domestic Twenty20 competition.
The BBL is both a blessing and a curse for Pattinson given it allows him to return to senior competition sooner but on a stage not generally suited to an audition for the Test squad.
Pattinson was keen to make an immediate impact for the Renegades, who lost their first two outings badly – but he said once captain Aaron Finch started to fire, the Renegades would be a completely different story.