Fast bowler Peter Siddle: 'Australian team has lacked a bit of leadership'

Australian fast bowler Peter Siddle has said that, in recent times, the team has lacked a bit of leadership.

The comment came ahead of Australia's two-match Test series against Pakistan in Dubai for which some young faces have been included in the team.

"'JL (Justin Langer) has spoken a lot about good characters and good people coming into the side. Just from an outside point of view, the side in the last little bit lacked a little bit of leadership," Cricket.com.au quoted Siddle, as saying.

Reflecting on his performance in the subcontinent, Siddle said that he holds a lot of experience playing in those conditions and is hopeful of passing on the knowledge to the youngsters in the team.

"I've played in the subcontinent a lot in the past. I got to play under some great guys in my first ever Test tour; 'Haydos' (Matthew Hayden) and 'Punter' (Ricky Ponting) and Brett Lee - guys like that who played a lot of cricket," he said.

"I've taken a lot of knowledge from them and hopefully I can pass on a bit of that to these guys and watch them go forward. Hopefully just being around the group and just giving a bit of knowledge about conditions (is helpful)," he added.

Pakistan series will be Australia's first Test outing after the infamous ball-tampering scandal at Capetown. The team, who have got a fresh look with new coach Justin Langer and captain Tim Paine at the helm of the squad, would be aiming to put up an impressive show in Dubai.

Australia are slated to play their first Test against Pakistan starting from July 7 in Dubai followed by the second match at Abu Dhabi starting from October 16.

-ANI