Peter Siddle

Peter Matthew Siddle (born 25 November 1984) is an Australian cricketer. He is a specialist right-arm fast-medium bowler who played mostly for Victoria in first-class and List A cricket, then also spent two seasons at Tasmania. In the Big Bash League, he was a foundation member of the Melbourne Stars, although he never played a game for them. He then had a short stint for cross town rivals the Melbourne Renegades, before a significant stint with the Adelaide Strikers. Siddle returned to play for the Renegades in the 2023-24 season. Since the 2024-25 BBL, Siddle has been playing with the Stars. He played Test cricket for Australia over an eight-year period from 2008 to 2016, before being recalled for the Test series against Pakistan in 2018. He retired from international cricket in December 2019. Siddle was part of the winning Australia team in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.

Early in Siddle's career he faced multiple injury setbacks, but was able overcome them in 2009 to be named the ICC Emerging Player of the Year. Though injuries continued to plague him throughout his career, he rose to prominence in the 2010–11 Ashes series when he became the ninth Australian to take a Test hat-trick, and the first Australian since Shane Warne in 1994–95 to do so in an Ashes test. He was also the first player in cricket history to take a hat-trick on his birthday. He remained a regular fixture in Australia's team until his bowling pace started to drop in 2014, with Australia's selectors beginning to focus on younger, faster bowlers.

Siddle became a vegan in 2012, subsequently receiving criticism that suggested his diet had a negative effect on his performance, which he disputed. He announced his international retirement on 29 December 2019, effective immediately.

Early life and career Siddle was born in Traralgon, Victoria and grew up in nearby Morwell in the Gippsland region.

In 2003, Siddle attended the Australian Cricket Academy and made his first-class debut playing for Victoria against a touring West Indian team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in November 2005. In 2006, he attended the academy again and was offered a full contract with the Victorian Bushrangers for the 2006–07 season. Shoulder injuries began to hamper Siddle, with a shoulder reconstruction sidelining him for most of the 2006–07 season and further problems interrupting the 2007–08 season. and taking nine wickets in Victoria's Pura Cup final loss to New South Wales. Siddle required a second shoulder reconstruction at the end of the season and, despite missing more than half of the season due to shoulder injuries, took 33 wickets at an average of 15.75 to attract attention from national selectors.

Test career (2008–2019) Emerging Player of the Year (2008–2009) After touring India with Australia A, Siddle was named in the national 15-man squad for the four-Test tour of India on 12 September 2008, as back up to established bowlers Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson. When Clark injured his elbow prior to the second Test, Siddle was selected in the match squad. He made his Test debut at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali on 16 October 2008. His first ball was a bouncer which hit Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir in the head, Siddle backed this performance up in the next Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, taking five for 59 in South Africa's first innings. His efforts were not enough, however, to prevent Australia from succumbing to a historic home series defeat.

Siddle also gave a fine account of himself on the South African leg of the rubber, in which the Australians triumphed 2–1. Going into the 2009 Ashes series, he had notched up 29 Test wickets at an average of 27.65. The fact that it had come in six Tests against the South Africans and one against India in India, with an economy rate of only 2.57 an over, helped make his record look even more impressive.

In the first Test of the Ashes series against England, Siddle took 2/97 on the first day's play. Siddle then took 5/21 on the first day of the fourth Test, which, to that point, were his career best bowling figures in an innings in Test cricket. After the Ashes, Siddle was named the ICC Emerging Player of the Year for 2009. Siddle was able to recover from the injury in time for the 2010–11 Ashes series in Australia the next summer.

Despite a heavy series defeat to England, Siddle had another successful match in the Boxing Day Test Match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, taking 6/75 in an innings defeat. Siddle started to enjoy more consistent success, starring against India the next summer with 23 wickets at an average of 18.65. During the series, he took his 100th Test wicket at the SCG on 3 January 2012, to rise to a career-high seventh in the ICC's Test bowler rankings. In the final match of the series he took impressive innings bowling figures of 5/49 on a batting wicket at the Adelaide Oval, For this performance he was named the man of the match. but due to his injury he was unable to fulfill his contract with the club. Siddle returned to the Australian Test team for their series against South Africa at the end of 2012. Whilst out injured, he decided to become a vegetarian. Siddle was forced to bowl for a long time again in the second Test at the Adelaide Oval, he bowled 63.5 overs — the most by any Australian fast bowler in a single Test match in the 21st century — as his workload had been compounded by an injury to teammate James Pattinson mid-match. Australia needed to bowl South Africa out in the final two days of the Test match to avoid a second consecutive draw, with Siddle being the most successful Australian bowler with four wickets. Whilst showing clear signs of exhaustion throughout the final day, Siddle pushed through and took wickets late in the match but was unable to get Australia the win.

Following his heavy workload in the first two Tests of the series, Siddle was rested for the final match. When Siddle returned to the Test team for the series against Sri Lanka, he registered his career-best bowling figures in Test cricket, taking nine wickets across both of Sri Lanka's innings. His spell of 4 for 50 at Hobart was nominated to be one of the best Test bowling performances of the year by ESPNCricinfo. Siddle then struggled to make an impact with his bowling in India,

Back-to-back Ashes series (2013–2014) Despite nearly constant speculation about his place in the Test team, Siddle was the only Australian bowler to play all ten Tests across the 2013 and 2013–14 Ashes series against England, bowling reliably throughout the two series. But his form waned towards the end of the season and he only took one wicket across the last two Tests of the series, which Australia lost 3–0. Again, there were critics who blamed Siddle's poor form on his diet, but Siddle continued to deny that his diet had anything to do with his poor form. Pietersen said that the reason for this was that he didn't have the patience to work through Siddle's 'robotic' and 'suffocating' tactics, and Siddle would bowl with consistently good line and length for long periods of time, resulting in Pietersen scoring much slower against Siddle than against any of the other bowlers in the Australian team. No other bowler dismissed Pietersen on more occasions in Test cricket than Siddle did. There were again critics who blamed his weight loss and slower bowling on his diet, but Siddle blamed it on the fatigue associated with bowling regularly for long periods of time. No longer a regular part of the Test team, Siddle lost his contract with Cricket Australia in early 2015.

Siddle signed to play for Nottinghamshire in 2014, making himself available for all of the LV County Championship and 50-over matches, but not the Twenty20 matches. In July 2014, he played for the Rest of the World team in the Bicentenary Celebration match at Lord's.

Siddle started to make a comeback to Test cricket in 2015, being brought into Australia's team for the 2015 Ashes series. He subsequently became a regular part of the Australian bowling lineup due to the retirement of Mitchell Johnson and an injury to Mitchell Starc. He played enough Test cricket to get himself back on a Cricket Australia contract,

Despite the stress fractures in his back keeping him out of cricket for most of 2016, Siddle still retained his contract with Cricket Australia for the 2016–17 season. This appeared to be Siddle's final Test match for Australia, as he was dropped from the team for the second Test with a back injury. During this summer, the Australian selectors worked on reshaping their bowling attack by focusing more on youth and outright pace, which left Siddle off of their radar moving forwards. but, when he returned for the 2017–18 season, he was told that he was still in contention to play Test cricket as James Pattinson was injured and the selectors were looking to protect their young pace attack from being overworked in the upcoming 2017–18 Ashes series. He played every game for Victoria in the 2017–18 JLT One-Day Cup, including an impressive 2/20 performance against the Cricket Australia XI at the tiny Hurstville Oval, a difficult ground to bowl at due to its short boundaries.

Later career On 29 December 2019, Siddle retired from international cricket, effective immediately.

In January 2026, while 41 years old, Siddle bowled a delivery at 145.8kph against the Hobart Hurricanes.

In February 2026, Siddle was signed by the Multan Sultans for the 2026 Pakistan Super League season, following the league’s first player auction format. He became one of the experienced overseas fast bowlers in the tournament and delivered notable performances in the latter stages of the season. In April 2026, he played a key role against the Karachi Kings, dismissing Abbas Afridi and helping defend a late chase.

Player profile Siddle is a right-arm fast-medium bowler who also bats right-handed.

Personal life Siddle was married to Anna Weatherlake. They became engaged in 2015 after being together for about four years,