‘It’s a hard one’ – Peter Siddle defends England’s preparations for second Test

The tourists have passed up the opportunity to send any of their first-choice Test team to face a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra.

England’s divisive preparations for next week’s day/night Ashes Test have received support from an unexpected source: former Australia seamer Peter Siddle.

The tourists have passed up the opportunity to send any of their first-choice Test team to face a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, spurning a chance to get accustomed to the floodlit cricket and the pink Kookaburra ball.

And while that decision has attracted plenty of criticism, the man who will be fronting up the home attack can see the logic.

Siddle, now 40, will be trying to rekindle his glory years by trying to take English wickets at Manuka Oval but he believes gentler pitches in the capital would n