Pattinson ready for Sheffield Shield comeback

James Pattinson will play his first Sheffield Shield match for more than two years when he returns to first-class action for Victoria on Saturday. Pattinson is on the comeback trail from a back injury and played five BBL games for the Melbourne Renegades this summer, but has not played a first-class match since the Cape Town Test against South Africa last March.

His last Shield game came in January 2013 but Pattinson is ready to return to the longer form with the Bushrangers against Queensland at the Gabba this weekend. Pat Howard, the Cricket Australia manager of team performance, said Pattinson had remodelled his bowling action during his lay-off and the aim was for him to be in contention for Australia's upcoming Test tours.

"We are delighted James is ready to return to first-class action after six months of hard work in rehabilitation and also remodelling his bowling action," Howard said. "We want him to get back to playing and performing and, put himself in contention for Australia's upcoming tours of the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

"It is important to gradually increase workload, and so the plan is for James to play in three Sheffield Shield matches before the end of the season. By making that gradual return to red-ball cricket it should allow him to work his way back into the longer form of the game without overloading his body and that approach should benefit James, Cricket Victoria and the Australian team in the long term."

Pattinson has claimed 51 Test wickets at 27.07 but injuries have contributed to him playing only 13 of a possible 38 Test since his debut in December 2011. He hopes that by reworking his action with help from Australia's bowling coach Craig McDermott he will avoid further back injuries like the one that sidelined him after last year's South African tour.

"It is a huge relief," Pattinson said. "The whole process over the last six months has been about trying to get my body right and getting my action right to be back playing the longer format of the game in red-ball cricket. I am less than a week away from doing that and I am pretty excited at the moment.

"Hopefully I can use these three games and get some good performances on the board and feel good, and then I can put my name forward for selection for the West Indies. But first of all there is the four-day game starting this weekend and it is exciting to get back out there.

"Initially I was not going to play any Big Bash cricket but I got to the stage where I had to play some cricket because it had been so long since I had, and I was ready to go. I managed to play five matches, which was fantastic.

"I was a bit nervous coming into the games, whether I could hold my action and actually compete at that level knowing I had been out of the game for so long but I was lucky enough to get a few wickets and stick to my action too."