Peter Siddle has put his limited-overs ambitions on hold for the next 13 months in a bid to ensure he is at his absolute best for Test matches against India and the back-to-back Ashes series.
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The paceman has not played a limited-overs international for two years. While last summer he was striving to reclaim his ODI squad berth this summer he has eschewed all limited-overs matches, even for Victoria.
Siddle is also the only player centrally contracted to Cricket Australia to not also hold a Big Bash League deal. He is part of Melbourne Stars' supplementary list but that purely as back-up in case the team qualifies for next year's Champions League Twenty20 tournament and is beset by injuries.
"At the moment I didn't want to play in the BBL. It was part of wanting to concentrate on Tests, the same thing I spoke about earlier in the year leading into the Test matches, that I wanted to miss the Ryobi [Cup] games and concentrate on the red ball," he said on Wednesday.
As well as the fitness aspect, saving himself for longer matches, the combative right-armer said he did not want to risk compromising the way he bowled in Test by making cameo appearances in limited-overs matches, where fast-bowlers' priorities change significantly.
"With the 12 months we've got coming up from now it is such a big time for us as a Test team that the best thing for me was to focus on that, try and bowl as many overs as I can throughout training, in games and get the body obviously very ready and raring to go for Test cricket. That was my plan and that's the one I want to stick with," Siddle said.
"Hopefully after this year I can have a good crack at one-day cricket again and see how I go but obviously there is a lot on the line for us as a Test team and wanting to get back to No.1 so that's the plan I want to go with."
