Pattinson's Test strike-rate of 48.9 is lower than that of legendary fast bowlers Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Fred Trueman, Sir Richard Hadlee, Dennis Lillee and Glenn McGrath, while he has a very respectable average of 26.33 and has taken four five-wicket hauls.<\/p>\n
But a combination of injury and fierce competition has seen Pattinson piece together a very patchy Test career.<\/p>\n
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The right-armer played just 17 of a possible 53 Tests between making his debut in December 2011 and falling into the wilderness in February 2016.<\/p>\n
When he lost his spot in the Test side after Australia's 2016 tour of New Zealand, due to a stress fracture in his back, a stress fracture in his shin and a torn muscle in the stomach, he wouldn't play another Test for three years and five months.<\/p>\n
And ever since making a comeback to Test cricket few had thought possible, from spinal surgery to playing the first match of the 2019 Ashes, he's appeared in just four of a possible nine Tests.<\/p>\n
Despite being injury-free and in the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, Pattinson wasn't able to unseat Cummins, Hazlewood or Starc for the Adelaide Test<\/a>, and is an outside chance to play in any of the remaining three matches.<\/p>\n Chappell spoke glowingly of the 30-year-old and said Australia were lucky to have a fast bowler of his calibre ready to be called upon.<\/p>\n "James Pattinson is a very good bowler. He'd be in any other Test team and in any other era, he'd be a main bowler," Chappell told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n "He's just unlucky that he happens to be around at the same time as the current guys.<\/p>\n "It's a terrific position for Australia's bowling stocks to be in.<\/p>\n "James Pattinson would be in any other attack and there are probably a couple of other guys that'd be in a lot of other attacks as well, so Australia's well served for quickies at the moment."<\/p>\n Although Pattinson (48.9) lays claim to a lower Test strike-rate than Trueman (49.4), Garner (50.8), Hadlee (50.8), Holding (50.9), McGrath (51.9) and Lillee (52.0), Chappell cautioned against comparing cricketers of different eras.<\/p>\n "You've got to balance it up against who they're bowling against," he said.<\/p>\n Chappell narrowly missed out on facing Trueman but he padded up against Garner, Holding and Hadlee on the international stage, and Lillee in the nets and Sheffield Shield.<\/p>\n "Like all good bowlers they were difficult but if you're playing Test cricket, you're expecting to come up against good bowlers, so you just try and find a way to hang around and score runs," Chappell said.<\/p>\n Although the former Test skipper couldn't be lulled into comparing Pattinson's Test statistics with the records of former champions, he said a quality cricketer would thrive in any era.<\/p>\n "The really good players from any era would be really good players in any other era," Chappell said.<\/p>\n "The reason why they're the best payers in their era is they're better and they're smarter, all those things that go to making up a good cricketer."<\/p>\n Pattinson is determined to play top-level cricket until he's 35, and once the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series is wrapped up, his next challenge will be to earn a recall for Australia's three-match Test tour of South Africa across February and March.<\/p>\n Australia will then play one home Test against Afghanistan in November, before striving to retain the Ashes over the 2021-22 Australian summer.<\/p>\n "I think he'll get a game with all the cricket being played," Chappell said.<\/p>\n "He just won't get as many games as he'd probably like."<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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