Perth, Nov 26 (PTI) Australia will not make any change to the squad that took a 295-run hammering from India in the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test here but there are some fitness concerns over all-rounder Mitchell Marsh’s ability to bowl, coach and selector Andrew McDonald has said.
Following the crushing loss, McDonald revealed that the team would land in Adelaide for the day-night second Test beginning December 6 earlier than planned to allow an additional net session.
“The people in that change-room (for Perth Test) are the same people that will be in Adelaide,” McDonald was quoted as saying by ‘cricket.com.au’.
“It (making changes) is always a consideration, wherever you go in the world in terms of the personnel you pick for conditions.” Marsh, who bowled just 17 overs in the first Test for a match haul of three wickets, has been dealing with “niggles” since the white-ball tour of England in September.
Skipper Pat Cummins has already revealed that Marsh finished the first Test “a little bit sore.” McDonald expressed satisfaction with Marsh’s bowling performance in the first innings but said his fitness would be monitored closely moving forward.
“Has he (Marsh) pulled up okay? We’ll wait and see,” McDonald said.
“No, we didn’t feel that (was a weakness). We knew that Mitch (Marsh) was slightly underdone coming in, but I thought the performance in the first innings was satisfactory.” Another player under scanner is top-order batter Marnus Labuschagne, who has struggled for form with an average of just 13.66 in his last 10 Test innings.
However, McDonald said he has faith in Labuschagne’s abilities, describing him as “the player we need” and urging him to rediscover his form.
“That’s an ongoing discussion and that ebbs and flows in players’ careers, so at the moment he’s in one of those patches and no doubt he’ll be getting critiqued externally,” McDonald said.
“But internally we’re really confident that, at his best, he’s the player that we need.” When asked if Labuschagne’s struggles were due to a technical issue, McDonald responded: “It’s always a combination of factors, isn’t it, with the mindset? “There’s some technical aspects to that also within the mindset play. So as I said, we’re really confident that he can turn that around.” The decision to ask debutant Nathan McSweeney to open the innings backfired as he scored just 10 and 0 in his two innings. McSweeney had enjoyed success in first-class cricket, as had Beau Webster, but neither of them has the experience of being an opener.
“I think there’s been enough players banging down the door. I feel as though we’ve got some depth there if called upon,” he said.
“I think sometimes people look at the pure numbers of what’s happening in Shield cricket, but it’s sometimes hard to get a connection with the surfaces they’re playing on. So we feel as though we’ve got ample players available if called upon.” Despite the heavy defeat, McDonald said morale of the team was strong.
“I think we’ve got to own it, and we’ve got to own that as coaches as well. So there will be a semblance of review around what we have done and what we can learn from it,” McDonald said.
“But I think morale is pretty good. I think this team is really good at the highs and lows, it’s quite a level team, so we’ll be somewhere in the middle of that.” The coach also stated that while a review of the performance would take place, the team’s preparation had been sound, and they were focused on the challenges ahead.
“We felt as though our planning going in (to Perth) was where we needed it to be. Execution in amongst that is always a question, but we were comfortable with the plans.
“Clearly, the method with the batters and the way they’ve been challenged is always going to be a learning moving forward. So we’ve got some challenges, no doubt about that.” PTI ATK PM ATK PM PM PM
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