CHELMSFORD: Sometimes Peter Siddle must feel like checking his passport, just to see that he's got his date of birth right.

He is only 30 but in the way in which he's been written off you would think he's on the doorstep of retirement.

Rolled out as the the token Australian at an England Ashes launch in London on Thursday, Jeff Thomson said picking Siddle on this tour was a "backward step". He'd been asked by the interviewer, former England captain Michael Atherton, whether James Pattinson or Pat Cummins should have been in the squad should have made the trip this winter.

"Instead of Siddle?" Thomson replied. "Yes. Nothing against Peter Siddle but you're talking about two guys with a bag of tricks and who have much more in the bag than he has. They've got a bit more pace too. But they're not here so that is that. But I'd have said that was the one backward step."

Siddle wouldn't have been aware of Thomson's remarks, just as Thomson probably wasn't aware that Cummins hasn't played a first-class match in two years, or about what Siddle was doing in Essex.

He didn't blow their county hosts away - in fact, it was an afternoon of little joy for the Australians as Tom Westley (144) and Essex captain Ravi Bopara (86 not out) held them at bay on a flat deck - but the Victorian was for much of the afternoon sharper than his colleagues and took one of only three wickets the tourists could manage.

Not lacking in experience in English conditions - he has played in Australia's last 10 Ashes Tests in England and had recent stints with Nottinghamshire and Lancashire - Siddle is still very unlikely to figure in next week's first Test. He is content, though, to wait for another opportunity to arise.

"There is always going to be someone sitting on the sidelines trying to get in," Siddle said. "And I think that's what's been the strength of the Australian line-up, there's been pressure whether it's been bat or ball on blokes and they've been able to keep ticking away and building pressure and when their opportunity comes they're ready.

"That's all I can do at the moment. I'm feeling good at the moment - I felt good today - and found some good rhythm."

Essex will resume on Friday at 3-299, still well in arrears of Australia's first-innings 562 - a total built around Mitch Marsh's 169 - but having given the county's faithful plenty to beam about on an overcast and occasionally rain-affected day.

It wasn't quite the afternoon Michael Clarke and his bowlers had planned on. With Harris and Siddle at long odds to unseat them and the rested Mitchell Johnson for the first Test - Harris was still awaiting the findings of a scan on his knee - Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc had their first opportunity on tour to build up for Cardiff.

Hazlewood, appearing in his first match in England with the red ball, was solid while Starc began more rusty. The left-armer's first ball pitched at the edge of the cut strip and flew towards Clarke at second slip before being stopped by a diving Peter Nevill, but while he was at times wayward he did bounce back to bowl Westley, and then nightwatchman Jamie Porter, late on to land very reasonable figures of 2-26.

Siddle admitted Australia's bowling was "a bit all over the shop" at times but described the day as a "good blowout".

"It's just about getting the rust out and getting through some overs," he said. "I think it showed, as Joshy and Starcy got going in their spells later in the day, they just improved and bowled a lot better. It was just blowing out the cobwebs and I think tomorrow will be a different story."

He said he expected the kind of flat wicket produced in Essex to be the standard this winter.

"I think so. Going on what happened last Test series over here, the wickets were pretty similar," Siddle said. "India copped pretty similar wickets last time around. It's hard to say though, they might go for a different plan.

"We've just got to prepare like we normally do and just expect the worst and hopefully we get something better. That's what happens with English wickets, when they do flatten out they really flatten out."

in the battle of the all-rounders Shane Watson, having been overshadowed by Marsh with the bat, didn't look encumbered in the six overs he bowled by the "sore points" that led to bat-only performance last week in Kent. He beat the bat of Westley on a couple of occasions, and outshone Marsh, who was inconsistent in his four overs

The Australians conceded 24 byes. Nevill could certainly not be fingered for all of them, although the wicketkeeper did miss a stumping that would have seen Bopara depart at the hands of Nathan Lyon on 35.

Westley, meanwhile, followed in the footsteps of another young Essex opener by the name of Alastair Cook, who savaged Ricky Ponting's side in a tour match before the fifth Ashes Test in 2005 with a blistering double century.

The 26-year-old wasn't originally pencilled in to open for Essex, but made the most of his promotion after teammate Nick Browne busted his finger in the field. Back in 2005 Cook had gone after Stuart MacGill - Shane Warne had been rested for that two-day game - and Australia's spinner Lyon was also the recipient of some heavy treatment from Westley on Thursday, conceding 54 runs from his first five overs.

Lyon later brought up an unwanted three figures as he ended the day on 0-110 from just 19 overs.