London [UK], June 13 : Australian pacer Peter Siddle reminisces the time when he came out to bat in a peculiar situation at Edgbaston in 2019 and Steve Waugh's words kept ringing in his ears the entire time.
Australia found themselves with a score of 122/8 on the opening day of the Ashes series, from this position Australia were bound to suffer a devastating loss. On that point, Siddle joined Steve Smith who was holding the front on his own, waiting for someone to come to his aid.
Steve Waugh who was brought in as a consultant for the tour by then coach Justin Langer, spoke to the bowlers just a day before the match.
"He spoke to all the bowlers, not so much about what we can do with our bowling, but how valuable we can be with contributions with the bat throughout the series. And that was literally the day before that first Test," Siddle said to ESPNcricinfo.
"He spoke about hanging out there, especially if there's a batter there, just hanging with him and ticking the runs over, rotating the strike."
The Australian bowlers received a similar speech from then-Australia assistant coach Brad Haddin, who had pulled all the bowlers aside and told them that the contribution from the lower order would be crucial for the team.
"Hads [Haddin] has always been a big one on that, obviously with him being a keeper batting at seven through his career, a lot of his batting tended to be with the lower order."
"It's always been a big emphasis for him to have those batters around him. So there's always a strong focus and he was one of the coaches that would be willing to stay around and keep working with you to get that extra hit in knowing how important it was to him when he played, but how important it was just in general for the team to push that total up a little bit more," Siddle added.
The speeches that the bowlers received acted as fuel and the driving force for the bowlers to score runs. Siddle in his 11-year Test career, contributed 85 runs in 44 balls in an 88-run stand with Smith. Nathan Lyon then batted for another hour at No. 11, helping Smith and add 74 for the final wicket to help Australia post 284 after winning the toss.
Mitchell Starc would also make an unbeaten 54 at No. 9 a 51-run stand with Smith who made 211, this allowed Australia to post a match-winning total of 497/8 declared and produce one of the most remarkable performances by bowlers in a match.
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