Sydney, Dec.11 (ANI): Right-arm fast bowler Peter Siddle has spoken out boldly in defence of Australia’s inexperienced pace attack, and declared that he will be firing up for the third and final Test against the West Indies to be played at Perth.

Siddle has shouldered great responsibility despite being only 14 Tests and a little more than a year into his career.

For the majority of those matches, Mitchell Johnson (28 Tests) has been his most senior pace companion, and he has taken the new ball ever since Johnson’s mid-Ashes meltdown at Lord’s.

This has made for a rocky ride, but the aggressive 25-year-old said he would not have it any other way.

Still, Siddle believes the early responsibility and the lack of a senior figure to turn to in a crisis will help in the long run.

‘It does make it a bit of a challenge but on the other hand, individually, it does make us progress a lot quicker than we might have,’ the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him, as saying.

‘If you had that superstar there, a Glenn McGrath, you can just get on the back of his coat-tail and be dragged along with him. It’s just made us all work that little bit harder and as you’ve seen, Mitchell Johnson, the rise he’s had in the short time just by being the leader and being the one out there doing the job, he’s turned into a great player and he’s bowling well,’ he added.

Siddle remains supremely confident that he will play in Perth and in the process deny his Victorian team mate Clint McKay a Test debut, despite a scan this week revealing a slight hamstring strain and some bleeding into the muscle.

He revealed the hamstring had been sore for a week. He bowled 25 overs in the first innings in Adelaide, where the West Indies put together an intimidating total of 451, and managed only eight overs in the second.

‘It got a bit worse during that first innings. We had a lot of overs to bowl there and it just sort of crept up on me, so it’s disappointing I couldn’t do more for the team in that second innings. Hopefully I do everything right over the next few days and get it right and I’m ready to go,’ Siddle said, adding that he has no interest in sitting out the Perth Test. (ANI)