Tag Ind-Aus-2012-News

It's great time to be a young cricketer in Australia. Opportunities galore and those with enough talent can seal their position for a long time..

James Pattinson is one of those youngster who was sitting on the fringes for a long time, traveling to Sri lanka and South Africa without getting a chance but against New Zealand at home, he got the node, disappointed in first innings but corrected himself to take back to back five wicket hauls. Now, Pattinson is ready for his biggest test year, bowling to legendry Indian batting in upcoming 4 test match series, the Border-Gavaskar trophy. Ask the 21 year old, and he says he isn't intimidated but aspires to be intimidating!

'You respect them really well from who they are, what they have done but, come game day, you can't be intimidated, you've got to be intimidating,' said Pattinson to The Saturday Age.

'So even though I've only played two Tests, I think I can do that - I can come with aggression, the same as Sids (Peter Siddle), and we can lead the attack,' said the youngster who has no intention of altering his attack.

Indian run machines, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid are probably on their last tour of Australia and experts believe reflexs may not be same for them as was the case on previous two tours when they made plenty of runs. Pattinson wants to exploit that.

'It was great to get some performances in my first two Tests to sort of get them thinking about me as well as Sids,' he said.

'It's going to be a pretty big challenge (but), you know, they're starting to get a bit older now, so I might hopefully have them at the right time.'

Talking about Boxing day test match, Pattinson conceeds he's always dreamt of it and is exited big time.

'It's basically the pinnacle,' reiterated Pattinson.

'As a kid, you run out in the backyard and pretend it's a Boxing Day Test, especially with my older brother. I played a lot with him and a lot with my mates.'

He revealed he has been working with the England bowling coach David Saker to work on the line to bowl to the Indians.

'I have spoken to David Saker quite a bit because they had some good success against India over in England, so I spoke to him (about) a few of their plans. I am 100 per cent confident I can do the job and the bowlers can do the job,' he believed.

But Pattinson is not going to make the mistake of underestimating the Indian batting line-up.

'You watched them in England and you felt that (signs of decline) at times. But they went back to India and they've played some good cricket,' he said.

'It's going to be different conditions for them and no doubt they are going to have the England series in the back of their mind as well. They will still be hard to bowl to and hard to get out,' he said.