Australia have made a bold selection call for the New Year's Test in Sydney, dropping Mitchell Marsh and including Beau Webster in their playing XI. Australia skipper Pat Cummins made the announcement on Thursday (January 2) while speaking to the press. Webster, 31, will make his Test debut at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Friday.
Cummins confirmed that Mitchell Starc has been declared fit to take the field and therefore will open the bowling for the hosts during the fifth Test. Starc struggled with his back during the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Meanwhile, the decision to exclude Marsh doesn't come across as a surprise. The 33-year-old allrounder has only managed 73 runs across seven innings in the four Tests at a below-par average of 10.42. Interestingly, 47 of those 73 came in the second innings of the Perth Test when the game had already slipped from Australia's hands.
With the ball, Marsh's returns have been far from impressive. The pace-bowling allrounder claimed figures of 2/12 and 1/65 in the Perth Test and went wicketless in the next three. Among all the chatter around his fitness, Marsh could only deliver 33 overs in the series and was unable to back his frontline pacers.
As they say, one man's loss is another man's gain, Marsh's snub opens the door in the form of an exciting opportunity for Webster. The 31-year-old allrounder is uncapped and the SCG Test will be his first international outing for Australia.
Webster is a batting allrounder. He has claimed 148 wickets in 93 first-class games at an average of 37.39, including two five-wicket hauls. The Tasmania all-rounder has aggregated 5297 runs in the first-class circuit at an average of 37.83, including 12 hundreds and 24 fifties.
Australia's Playing XI for Sydney Test:
Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
