Australia head coach Andrew McDonald and selectors met on Monday morning to discuss the team composition for Sydney and a replacement for injured substitute batsman Josh Inglis needs to be confirmed.
McDonald and captain Pat Cummins admitted that Starc was suffering from a problem and was in pain, but believed he should be fine to play in Sydney.
But Starc’s problem and his workload throughout the series alongside Cummins has highlighted the lack of contribution from Australia’s fifth bowler in Marsh. He has bowled just 33 overs in seven innings of the series (discounting the brief second innings in Brisbane), and since claiming 2 for 12 in the first innings of the series, he has figures of 1 for 127 in his last 28 overs.
Travis Head provided a vital match-winning breakthrough for Australia in the fourth innings at the MCG as Marsh did not bowl at all in the last two sessions despite periods when Australia’s quicks needed a break. But McDonald insisted he’s not worried about Marsh’s contributions with the ball.
“No, there’s no worry,” McDonald said after the memorable win at the MCG. “And I think people have probably been reading too much into that. We haven’t required him with the ball as often as we would have thought. He was bowling again today. His speeds have gone up in the 120s. [kph]. No injury concerns there.
“I think focusing that on that angle is a little unfair. We just haven’t required it at certain times for some reason, so that’s more of a tactical implementation, rather than a body. I think the number of overs The fact that bowling throughout the series will probably be beneficial for us.
“Throughout the entire series, it’s been relatively light, so I would expect both attacks to be in good shape to be able to press [in the final Test]. Does that mean you need a fifth player? I think you still need a fifth player. But if you’re going to demand a lot from the fifth pitcher, potentially not.”
However, Marsh’s limited contributions have further exacerbated his meager performances with the bat. Reigning medalist Allan Border was Australia’s best Test batsman last season with match-winning half-centuries in four of Australia’s six series wins against Pakistan, the West Indies and New Zealand. But in this series he scored only 73 runs at 10.42, 47 of them in the second innings at Perth when the game was already over. Nathan McSweeney scored 72 at 14.40 before being dropped for the fourth Test.
Despite the poor series and a history of doubts, McDonald believed Marsh was in good spirits.
“Would you like to have better performances? There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “For four Test matches, he hasn’t been able to perform at the level he would like and we would like, but yeah, he’s on his feet. We just won a Test match. He’s in a pretty good mental space.”
McDonald was confident his trio of fasts could handle the short return to Sydney despite Starc’s pain.
“Any time you pass a game, it’s always a good indicator that you have a chance for the next game,” McDonald said. “That didn’t stop him. Clearly, there was a bit of discomfort at the beginning of the periods, but once he warmed up, it seemed like he was pretty free. [His] ball speeds were good.
“We’ll see how everyone recovers. The last bowl game was a pretty attrition game, something we’re not used to in recent years. Clearly, Starcy has something of some description. We’ll evaluate it. But other than that, it looks like We came out pretty unscathed, but [with a] Short-term recovery is important and we will assess how the team looks in Sydney based on the surface, as we always do.”
Australia released Richardson to play a BBL match for Perth Scorchers in Adelaide on New Year’s Eve, but he will return to the team on Wednesday and McDonald was confident, despite his injury history, that he could be called upon to play if necessary. .
“Very confident,” he said. “He’s here for a reason. So if we didn’t have confidence, he wouldn’t be here. He’s had a tough week with us in the nets. Everything indicates that he would be able to bowl more than 40 overs if called upon.
“Sean Abbott is there too. We feel that, [the] SCG is their stadium so it will also be useful if called upon. “It will be about assessing our frontline capabilities and then making decisions from there.”
