Former Australia cricketer Simon Katich has questioned Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh’s place in the squad ahead of the fourth Test in Melbourne. Notably, Marsh hasn’t had a memorable series so far, having scored just 69 runs from three matches and has only bowled 23 overs, picking up three wickets.
Analyzing his performance in the series so far, Katich said that Marsh hasn’t been bowling the amount of overs that was expected of him so far. He recalled his spell in the first Test in Perth where he bowled five overs and dismissed Dhruv Jurel and Washington Sundar.
“I’ve been saying for a couple Tests, Mitch Marsh has not been able to bowl the volume of overs that everyone expected of him. Given the conditions and given he is a wicket taker. We saw that in Perth, he bowled well on day one. Took some key wickets and then struggled to back up,” Katich said on ‘SEN Breakfast’.
Further speaking ahead, Katich highlighted how Marsh didn’t bowl enough overs in Brisbane after Josh Hazlewood got injured. The former batter felt that there was something not right with him and suggested replacing him with Beau Webster.
Beau Webster deserves to be in that squad: Simon Katich
“I mean obviously the Aussie hierarchy know better then we do around where his fitness is at. But for him to bowl two overs the other day after Josh Hazlewood went down, that to me indicates something’s not 100% right with him. At the end of the day, Beau Webster deserves to be in that squad. He’s done very well for Tassie in the last few years, he’s a genuine all-rounder given what his role is for Tassie and he plays that dual role with bat and ball,” he added.
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Webster has played 93 first-class matches in his career so far and has scored 5297 runs at an average of 37.83 with 12 hundreds and 24 fifties. Apart from that, he’s scalped 148 wickets at an average of 37.39 with two five-wicket hauls to his name. It remains to be seen whether the Australian team management drops Marsh for the upcoming Test. They will already be bringing Scott Boland into the team in place of Josh Hazlewood.
