Australian head coach Andrew McDonald accepts that Mitchell Marsh has not been collecting as man runs against India as the selectors have expected from him. Now if Mitchell Starc is out for the Sydney Test due to injury, it is likely that Sean Abbott or Jhye Richardson might come as replacements.
After a record victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Australian players went to Sydney on Tuesday. Since both teams can still win the trophy, the final Test in Sydney is going to be one of the most awaited game in decades.
Winning teams do not like changing their lineups in general, but Australia has a lot of selection issues that need to be dealt with. Since March has had a recent score of 9,5,2,4,0 for a series of 73 runs averaging at 10.4, the main query is if to keep him at no.6. In case the situation arises that March has to be replaced, Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster is the ready to go player for the team.
“He’s in a good [head] space. Would you like better performances? There’s no doubt about that. Over four Test matches, he hasn’t been able to deliver at the level he would like and we would like. He’s up and about though. We just won a Test match,” McDonald said for Marsh.
McDonald stated that Marsh was not quite fit because of his bowling loads. Marsh has bowled 33 overs in four Tests, taking 3-139. In Sydney, since the stadium has a track of being in favour of batters in recent years, Australia might consider having a fifth bowling option.
“[The bowlers] are in pretty good shape and the assumptions are they recover from this one. Does that mean you need a fifth bowler? I think you still need a fifth bowler. But are you going to put a huge demand on a fifth bowler? Potentially not,” McDonald said.
Update on Starc:
According to a team spokesperson, Starc was misleading about his injuries after the game, and no formal diagnosis has been made whatsoever. The more Starc takes part in spells, the higher discomfort he seems to feel. Australia’s initial training session is held two days before a Test, which is Wednesday in this case. However, because of a short time to travel from Melbourne to Sydney, Starc might play easy in the nets.
“Clearly Starc is carrying something of some description. Other than that it looks as though we got through pretty unscathed. Any time you get through the game, it’s always a good indicator that you’re a chance at the next game. It didn’t stop him. Clearly, there was a little bit of discomfort early on in spells, but once he got warm, you saw he was pretty free. We’ll see how everyone recovers tomorrow. I think the amount of overs that we have bowled in the series is probably going to be to a benefit to us,” McDonald said.
Abbott and Richardson are two players who are on standby in case Starc could not participate. Richardson will join the team on Wednesday.
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