Australia name unchanged squad for Adelaide Test, Marsh doubtful

Australia head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed that the squad that faced and lost to India humiliatingly in the Perth Test, the first of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy, will remain unchanged for the second game, a day-night affair at the Adelaide Oval beginning December 6. 

However, the former Victoria captain was unsure about the fitness of one of their key players—all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who bowled a total of 16 overs in the match. 

“The people in that change room are the same people that will be in Adelaide. We knew that Mitch [Marsh] was slightly underdone coming in but I thought the performance in the first innings was satisfactory,” said the Australian coach. 

But McDonald did not reveal whether there will be any change in the Aussie playing 11 or not. “We’ll assess that as we go along, but as I said the squad that’s in there, they’ll be in Adelaide,” he said.

Apart from the 11 that played in the Perth Test , Scott Boland and Josh Inglis form the 13-member squad for the hosts.

Marnus Labuschagne’s form has also been a cause of concern for Australia as he has just one fifty-plus score in his last 10 Test innings. But for people in the setup, it is not as big an issue as it seems.  

“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. But internally, we’re really confident that, at his best, he’s the player that we need,” McDonald said about Labuschagne’s form.