Australian pace bowler Peter Siddle in interaction with cricket.com.au had named the best Test XI that he played against. The team was dominated by players from England and South Africa and also had a couple of Indians and Sri Lankans respectively.
While talking about the players that he chose, Siddle also went on to name the best fast bowler and best spinner that he has seen operate in international cricket.
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He named South African expressman Dale Steyn as the best that he has seen. Steyn was locked in a battle with Jimmy Anderson for the most part of their career for the top honours in this generation. Both the pacers went through their share of injuries but the last few years were difficult for the South African as he had to miss a lot of cricket after being sidelined. This allowed Anderson to zoom ahead and the Englishman now holds the record for most wickets by a paceman in the history of Test cricket.
But Siddle is clear in his opinion, that Steyn is the best of this era. “Jimmy and Dale are definitely opening the bowing. Jimmy can run into the wind, he won’t mind that at all. Steyn can take the new ball, doing his thing first up. Then Broad can come up first change. You can’t go past Steyn opening the bowling. Players that I’ve played against he’s definitely the best bowler. Had some really good battles with him, just watching him play, he’s amazing to watch. Lucky we got to play him in BBL this year and got the same run around again. He’s a beautiful bowler to watch,” said Siddle in a podcast with cricket.com.au
{{/usCountry}}But Siddle is clear in his opinion, that Steyn is the best of this era. “Jimmy and Dale are definitely opening the bowing. Jimmy can run into the wind, he won’t mind that at all. Steyn can take the new ball, doing his thing first up. Then Broad can come up first change. You can’t go past Steyn opening the bowling. Players that I’ve played against he’s definitely the best bowler. Had some really good battles with him, just watching him play, he’s amazing to watch. Lucky we got to play him in BBL this year and got the same run around again. He’s a beautiful bowler to watch,” said Siddle in a podcast with cricket.com.au
{{/usCountry}}Among the spinner, Siddle definitely sprang a surprise. He ignored the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Graeme Swann and named Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath in his team. Herath single-handedly destroyed Australia when the Baggy Greens visited the Emerald Isles in 2016 and that is one memory that has stuck on with the Aussie pacer.
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“Herath was the one who troubled us a lot. He was unbelievable in that series in 2016, I don’t know, left-arm spin has always done well against us. Not bad considering that he came after Murali and still took 400 wickets. He’s a pretty handy spinner, plenty good spinners around but he was probably the best,” Siddle said.
Herath holds the record for most wickets by a left-arm spinner in Test cricket, with a total of 433 wickets from 93 Tests. Although the majority of his wickets came in the helpful conditions at home, Herath was often an underrated bowler, who managed to shine despite spending the majority of his career in the shadow of the great Muttiah Muralitharan.