Hobart Test:`Injured` Siddle ruled out, Mennie in line for debut

Hobart [Australia], Nov.8 (ANI): Australia's uncapped fast bowler Joe Mennie is in line to make his Test debut against South Africa after Peter Siddle was ruled out of the upcoming second Test due to a back injury. Siddle sustained lower back soreness at the conclusion of the first Test match in Perth, where he made his international return following an eight-month lay-off due to a stress fracture of the back. Confirming the news, Australia's team physio David Beakley said that although they are hopeful that Siddle would recover quickly, they have withdrawn him from the squad for the second Test match in Hobart, starting from Saturday. "Whilst we expect bowlers to be sore after Test matches, this was slightly worse than we expected and given that he was returning from a significant back injury, we organised some scans today," Beakley was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "The scans demonstrated some low grade bone oedema around his old stress fracture that is likely to be a flare-up of his previous lower back injury. We are hopeful that this will resolve relatively quickly, but have withdrawn him from the squad for the second Test match in Hobart. We will monitor his recovery and have a better idea of when he will return to play in the next week or so," he added. Following Siddle's omission, Australia have called in Jackson Bird as cover for the bowling unit. However, Bird is not officially part of the squad, which means Mennie (named as 12th man in the team) is set to join the pace attack along with Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. Earlier, the selectors had included Callum Ferguson and Joe Burns to the Test squad to replace Shaun Marsh, who got his finger injured while fielding on the first day of the opening Test which Australia went on to lose by massive 177 runs to go down 0-1 in the three-match series. (ANI)