Melbourne: Australia’s top-order batsman Shaun Marsh will replace all-rounder Shane Watson ahead of the three-match Test series in South Africa beginning Feb 12.
Cricket Australia (CA) on Saturday announced that left-handed bat Marsh will travel to South Africa as soon as possible after Watson was ruled out of the first Test with a right calf complaint.
“Shaun has now recovered from injury and the national selection panel has selected him to join the squad in South Africa in light of Shane Watson not being available for the first Test with a calf injury,” CA national selector John Inverarity said in a statement.
Watson did not bowl in an inter-squad practice match at The Wanderers in Johannesburg on Friday, but did bat, making 34.
However, team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said he would be fit enough to face the Proteas after he picked up the injury at the team’s training camp in Potchefstroom a week ago.
“He batted yesterday and was fine, and we’ve been building up his intensity. Today we were trying to get him up to match level ... and he struggled with that today. He could feel it,” Kountouris told reporters on Saturday.
“We just don’t think he he’s going to be right for the first Test. We need a few more days now to let him recover and start up again.
“It’s not a tear, but he has got an injury there. We’ve had a scan and it showed he’s got a low-grade muscle injury that we’ve been managing. We were hopeful he’d recover, but it needed to be a little bit more advanced than what it is at the moment.”
The first Test against South Africa gets underway Wednesday at Centurion Park, Pretoria.
