While Australia’s men’s team coach Andrew McDonald has confirmed there won’t be a player cull following the 295-run loss to India, he’s conceded fitness doubts remain over allrounder Mitchell Marsh’s capacity to bowl.
In the wake of Monday’s defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series opener at Peth Stadium, skipper Pat Cummins revealed Marsh was still carrying injury “niggles” sustained during this year’s white-ball tour to the UK and the 33-year-old had finished the first Test “a little bit sore”.
When asked today how Marsh had pulled up having sent down a total of 17 overs (3-77) across India’s two batting innings, McDonald was far from definitive about the allrounder’s prognosis.
“Has he pulled up okay? We’ll wait and see,” McDonald told reporters following Australia’s first loss in five Tests at Perth Stadium.
“We knew that Mitch (Marsh) was slightly underdone coming in, but I thought the performance in the first innings was satisfactory.”
Marsh’s first innings return with the ball (2-12 from five overs) when batting conditions were tough represented a sharp contrast to the second innings where he conceded more than five runs an over across his four spells.
While he claimed the wicket of India’s top-scorer Yashasvi Jaiswal in the second innings, that breakthrough came from a wide long-hop the opener slapped carelessly to backward point.
If Marsh is deemed unable to provide significant support with the ball in the second NRMA Insurance Test that begins at Adelaide Oval on December 6, selectors will need to weigh up whether current auxiliary bowling stocks will suffice.
In addition to Marsh and their four front-line bowlers, Australia deployed Marnus Labuschagne (both medium-pace and leg spin) and off-spinner Travis Head during India’s mammoth second innings of 6(dec)-487.
Labuschagne finished with 0-38 from his 6.3 overs, while Head returned 0-26 from five.
McDonald claimed he and his brains trust did not consider the efforts of Australia’s fifth (and subsequent) bowler(s) as a weakness in the opening Test but chose his words carefully when quizzed on the possibility of changes to the team’s top six batters.
“The people in that changeroom (for Perth Test) are the same people that will be in Adelaide,” McDonald said.
“It (making changes) is always a consideration, wherever you go in the world in terms of the personnel you pick for conditions.”
The only additional top-order candidate in the Australia squad for the Perth Test was uncapped keeper-batter Josh Inglis who could be deployed as a specialist bat should selectors dictate.
That would leave the auxiliary bowling responsibilities to Labuschagne, Head and part-time spinner Nathan McSweeny (in his second Test) in Marsh’s absence.
History suggests the need for a fifth bowler or beyond is minimal for pink ball Tests played at Adelaide Oval.
Across the seven day-night matches at the venue since the historic first in 2015, Australia’s four frontline bowlers have delivered all but 74 out of a combined total of almost 1,050 overs.
But the perils of relying on a four-pronged attack were highlighted in the inaugural day-nighter against New Zealand when spearhead Mitchell Starc broke down with a stress fracture in his foot after sending down just nine overs on day one.
As such, the selectors might consider adding a back-up allrounder to the current squad noting that seamer Scott Boland is already part of that 13-man group.
If they were to call for ‘cover’ when the squad assembles in Adelaide a day earlier than initially planned next Monday, reigning Sheffield Shield player of the Year Beau Webster from Tasmania could be in the frame.
Webster has continued his strong form of last summer and scored 61 in addition to snaring 3-81 in the first phase of Tasmania’s ongoing Sheffield Shield game against New South Wales.
Another allrounder who may come into calculations is Western Australia’s Aaron Hardie who was part of Australia’s set-up during the recent white-ball fixtures against Pakistan but isn’t playing in the current round of Shield matches.
As well as adding a day to their planned Adelaide preparations, McDonald indicated Australia’s batters would be hitting balls over the coming week while in their respective home states.
However, he echoed Cummins in dismissing suggestions some players should use the extended break between Tests to return to Premier Cricket ranks, or even be parachuted into next weekend’s two-day Prime Minister’s XI game against India in Canberra.
“That hasn’t crossed our minds,” McDonald said.
“We feel that with the long summer ahead, the prep we’ve got in place – albeit we’ve extended that by a day in Adelaide – we’ll be well prepared as we were leading into the first Test.
“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.”
McDonald added neither the playing group nor the coaching staff were shying away from the reality they were soundly outplayed over the final three days of the opening Test, and that planning for Adelaide would focus on those shortcomings.
Having lost the final Test of the previous summer to West Indies at the Gabba, the reigning world champions have experienced successive defeats on home soil for the first time since a series loss to South Africa in 2016.
The last occasion that losing streak extended to three consecutive Tests in Australia was in 1988-89 when the touring West Indies were in the indomitable pomp.
But McDonald believes the significant successes enjoyed by the current playing group over recent years means they remain upbeat, noting they achieved 2-0 series triumph in New Zealand between those successive losses at home.
“I think we’ve got to own it, and we’ve got to own that as coaches as well,” he said of the heaviest defeat (in terms of runs) of Cummins’ captaincy.
“So there will be a semblance of review around what we have done and what we can learn from it.
“(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.
“There will be conversations around how we improve the appetite to get better, but I don’t think the morale’s an issue at this stage.”
NRMA Insurance Men’s Test Series v India
First Test: India won by 295 runs
Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)
Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT
Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT
Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT
Australia squad: (first Test only) 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
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
