James Pattinson ready to hit the ground running if recalled for Australia

Nathan Lyon hopes Australia can pay their respects to Phil Hughes with victory in the third Test against New Zealand, which starts on the first anniversary of his death.

Pink fit… James Pattinson poses with a pink ball ahead of the first ever day-night Test match at the Adelaide Oval, starting next Friday.

Fellow former Hawkesbury player John Hastings said last month the pink ball made cricket boring.

New Zealand prepare for the pink ball test against Australia in Adelaide.

“People who know me know that I go 100 miles an hour all the time (and) if I get injured I get injured”, the right-arm speedster told reporters at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday. It goes soft pretty quickly, I didn’t see a huge amount of reverse swing in that game and I don’t think it swung from memory too much until the artificial light took over. “There will be hard times throughout the test, as there are in any test. We’ll just deal with whatever is thrown at us”. The global Cricket Council (ICC) has cleared the use of pink balls for these Tests, with the Australians having already used the pink balls in a few warm-up matches and domestic competitions.

Players in all four matches will wear black armbands in a mark of respect for Hughes, who died on November 27 a year ago, two days after being struck by a bouncer while batting for South Australia against NSW at the SCG.

“I love all cricket but my preferred format of the game is Test cricket”.

“It’s no different for me bowling with a red ball, white ball and a pink ball so I’m not going to change my plans”.

With the pink ball expected to suit the spinners – evidenced by Australia toying with the idea of deploying Lyon and Steve O’Keefe in a twin-spin attack – Craig seems likely to hold his place.

The 30-year-old has so far featured in just one Test match for Australia against Pakistan in Dubai in October 2014.

Lyon said all touring spinners usually struggled with Australian pitches and backed his opposite number’s ability to bounce back.

Pattinson’s fledgling worldwide career has been hampered by a string of injuries – including two back problems that have seen him remodel his action and a recent hamstring strain.

The 25-year-old was called up to the squad for the day-night Adelaide Oval match on Wednesday as a replacement for Mitchell Johnson, who retired at the end of the drawn second Test in Perth a day earlier.