Debasis Sen, Melbourne: Victorian Peter Handscomb has had his Boxing Day dream shattered after he was left out of the Australian Test team, replaced by all-rounder Mitch Marsh.
Australian captain Tim Paine confirmed a mix of poor form, plus the need for an extra bowler, paved the way for Marsh to make his return in the third Test against India at the MCG.
“It’s a long series, our bowlers have had a really big workload, and we feel we are going to need Mitch’s bowling at some point,” Paine said.
Paine further added that he knows Handscomb would be upset but he will be there with the team and will travel with the team in Sydney for the fourth Test and on a spinning track there he would again be in consideration to come in the playing XI.
“Pete would be upset, but he has had a conversation with selectors that there is a few things they would like him to work on, and I think Pete is open to that.
“He’s got thing to improve on, like we all do.
“We think Mitch can come in and do a good job with the bat, and give some support to our bowlers. It’s a win-win.
“He’s going to be around the group this week, and going to Sydney, where it spins, Pete comes back in to consideration.
“We know Pete at his best will score a lot of Test runs.”
The visitors has made quite a lot changes in the playing XI for the Boxing Day Test but Paine didn’t look concern with it as they have done their homework.
“I didn’t know, to be honest doesn’t really bother us because we have done our homework on all of their players for a number of weeks now. We have been prepared for all of them to play. What they do is their business; we will keep focusing on what we are doing.”
There were a lot of controversies after ICC rated the Perth pitch as “average” where Australia won the second Test to level the four-match Test series 1-1. After that incident all eyes will be on MCG wicket. After having a close look of the wicket Paine feels that the pitch will be good here.
“I think the pitch will be really good. It will be really hot as well for most of the game. Most of the shield games have been played here, there has been one result so I don’t think it will play drastically different from how it has played all these years although it does look a bit different but we saw in Perth looks can be deceiving at times,” added Paine.