Simon Katich believes Mitch Marsh should be making way for Beau Webster ahead of Australia’s clash with India for the Boxing Day Test.
In light of Nathan McSweeney being dropped from the highly anticipated test match, Katich believes the WA all-rounder should be the one that makes way due to his inability to bowl enough overs to relieve the stress off Australia’s other fast bowlers.
“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,” Katich said on SEN Breakfast.
“We saw that in Perth, he bowled well on day one. Took some key wickets and then struggled to back up.
“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.”
The 33-year-old has played in 45 test matches throughout his 10-year career to date, whilst also obtaining 51 wickets.
In this series alone however, Marsh has only been able to obtain three wickets off his 23 overs bowled, including not bowling in Australia’s second fielding innings in both Adelaide and Brisbane.
This has caused Katich and others to believe ‘the Bison’ isn’t fit enough to be able to compete for the rest of the series and would be more interested in turning to a debutant to fulfil the role for the remaining two matches.
“At the end of the day, Beau Webster deserves to be in that squad,” Katich said.
“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.”
Australia takes on India in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test on Thursday, where the winner of the clash will most likely be put in the best possible position to claim the Border-Gavaskar trophy in Sydney in the new year.
