Mitchell Marsh is fully fit and available to bowl in Melbourne, says Andrew McDonald

Australia coach Andrew McDonald with the players during a practice session.
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Australia head coach Andrew McDonald on Tuesday (December 24, 2024) provided a fitness update on all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and said that the 33-year-old is “fully fit” and will be “available to bowl” in the upcoming Melbourne Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against India, as reported by ESPNcricinfo.

The series is currently tied at 1-1 after India secured a draw in the third Test in Brisbane. The Boxing Day Test will kick off on December 26 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Earlier in the Perth Test, Marsh struggled to bowl at full tilt during India’s second innings. However, the all-rounder was still added to the playing eleven for the second and third Test matches.

Previously in the Gabba Test, the 33-year-old bowled only two overs, which raised concerns among the fans regarding his availability in the upcoming matches of the Test.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, McDonald said that Marsh will play a bigger role with the ball in the upcoming Boxing Day Test than the previous ones.

“Just to clear up, Mitch Marsh is fully fit and available to bowl. I know that he only bowled two overs last game, and people were speculating around that, but that was more because of the weather interventions, and we’re able to keep our fast bowlers fresh, albeit we only had two out of the three operating. But he’s ready to go, and I think he’ll play a role in this Test match with the ball more so than the previous ones,” McDonald was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.

As per ESPNcricinfo, Marsh had one of his longest bowling spells of the summer in the nets on Tuesday.

Marsh made his Test debut against Pakistan in 2014. Following that he has played 45 long-format matches and 78 innings, scoring 2079 runs at a strike rate of 56.44. With the ball, He has also bagged 51 wickets in Tests at an economy rate of 3.56.

Earlier last week, Australia made a couple of changes to its squad, addressing the absence of Josh Hazlewood and concerns in the top order. The hosts have added Beau Webster, Jhye Richardson, and Sam Konstas have been added to the squad before the fourth Test match of the series.