The 24-year-old was not expected to feature in the BBL, on the basis he would be better to practise his modified bowling action in club cricket rather than in the glare of live television. Nevertheless, Australia coach Darren Lehmann and Test bowling coach Craig McDermott have been sufficiently comforted by the extent of Pattinson's recovery that they have approved his return for Melbourne Renegades against Sydney Thunder.

"Everyone is happy with where I'm at and how I'm going," he said. "It's good to be back. I've done a lot of work over the past couple of months on my action, trying to make sure I get back and stay injury free."

Pattinson played in last season's tournament, just after his recovery from a back injury suffered in the 2013 Ashes series, and a few months later reinjured himself in his Test comeback in Cape Town. While he admitted his return last season was "rushed" he insisted he was confident it was right for him to again return in the BBL this season, without slipping into bad habits.

"Last time I had the right frame of mind of what I wanted to do but I just didn't have enough time to do exactly what I wanted to do with my action. This time I've had no real set time on my return. I've just taken it as it comes, and have just been trying to improve my action to make sure it's right for when I do come back," he said.

Pattinson's confidence in his modified bowling action, intended to reduce stress on his back, has been helped by biomechanical testing results that have shown a steady reduction in the  counter-rotation of his back as part of his bowling action.

"The results were really good. The counter-rotation pretty much dropped every time I went up there, even though each time my intensity went up. By the end of it I was bowling off my long run with good pace and more counter-rotation ... [had dropped by] more than half what it was this time last year," he said.

Pattinson reaffirmed his goal throughout his rehabilitation has been getting ready in time to press his claims for selection for the Test tours to the West Indies and England in mid-2015.

"All along, my focus has been getting ready for red-ball cricket ... the progress I've made has allowed me to play a few games for the Renegades as well as getting my workload up to play [Sheffield] Shield cricket come February," he said.

"Last time was probably a bit rushed. I didn't play any red-ball cricket in between playing that Test match in England, getting injured and then playing in South Africa. Even mentally I probably wasn't ready."

The Renegades will boast an entirely different specialist bowling attack to their last match, a loss away to Perth on Boxing Day, for their first home match of the season.

Pattinson, Peter Siddle and fit-again Nate Rimmington have replaced pacemen Andrew Fekete and Nick Winter from the Scorchers match. The Thunder, who last season won at Etihad Stadium, have made only one change to their squad, bringing in all-rounder Ahillen Beadle for batsman Scott Henry.

RENEGADES (from): Aaron Finch (c), Fawad Ahmed, Dwayne Bravo, Tom Cooper, Callum Ferguson, Aaron O'Brien, James Pattinson, Nate Rimmington, Ben Rohrer, Andre Russell, Matt Short, Peter Siddle, Matthew Wade.
THUNDER (from): Mike Hussey (c), Ahillen Beadle, Aiden Blizzard, Pat Cummins, Chris Hartley, Nathan Hauritz, Daniel Hughes, Jaques Kallis, Josh Lalor, Eoin Morgan, Andrew McDonald, Dirk Nannes, Gurinder Sandhu.