Mitchell Marsh, the all-rounder from Australia, has confirmed his availability for the second Test at Adelaide against India. This announcement came following the inclusion of untested Tasmanian cricketer Beau Webster as a replacement for the veteran 33-year-old. Marsh, who reached Adelaid on Tuesday, said that his body is prepared for the pink-ball, day-night match, which begins on December 6 and runs until December 7. “Body’s all good, sweet. I’ll be good to go,” Marsh said as quoted by Nine’s Wide World of Sports. However, WWOS also said that as per Sydney Morning Herald, the experienced all-rounder could play the Adelaide pink-ball Test as a specialist batter.
Marsh has had ankle problems for quite a while; indeed, he spent part of the 2022-23 summer in surgery. He flew into Adelaide with “more soreness than expected.”
Scoring at lightning pace during the second innings run-chase at Perth, Marsh created panic with 47 runs in just 67 balls which included three fours and two sixes. Bowling, he bowled 17 overs and took three wickets in both innings.
The skipper Pat Cummins had indicated during the match played at Perth that Marsh was sore at the end of the game and that he was going to monitored for the next 10 days.
“He has been battling a couple of little niggles since the UK tour,” Cummins said as quoted by Wisden.
“So the main thing is he’s in there as one of the top six batters in the country, and bowling is a bonus. He was a little bit sore towards the end of this Test match. In the next 10 days, chance to freshen up, try and get it right. We will see how he goes. Ideally, he would be able to bowl in each Test match,” he added.
Marsh’s been Australia’s top batsman during the last year since he’s returned to Test set-up as Ashes to England. In 11 Tests and 20 innings since his return, he has 803 runs at average 44.61 in, with a century and six fifties. His highest score is 108.
Australia squad (for second Test): Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal
