Mitchell Marsh is in line to play his first Test match in nearly four years if Cameron Green does not recover from soreness in time to take his place in the Australian side for the third Ashes Test at Headingley beginning Thursday night.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Green has been battling soreness sustained by the extra workload in the Lord’s Test, which ended only three days ago.
Nathan Lyon’s calf injury meant Green had to bowl far more than he normally would have, and the Aussies’ barrage of short-pitched bowling across both innings of the Lord’s Test put even more strain on the 24-year-old’s back.
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Pat Cummins has delayed naming his team until the toss this evening to give Green as much time as possible to prove his fitness.
Marsh hasn’t played a Test since the 2019 Ashes series in England.
Cummins did however confirm Todd Murphy will make his Ashes debut for Lyon in the third Test.
Scott Boland is also expected to line up in place of Josh Hazlewood, who has played both Tests so far, having played just four in the previous two home summers.
In the other changerooms, England have made wholesale changes in a desperate bid to keep the series alive.
Harry Brook has been promoted to No.3 in the batting order after Ollie Pope was ruled out for the rest of the series with a recurrence of a shoulder injury.
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Jonny Bairstow will also move up to No.5. Moeen Ali returns to the side after being dropped for Lord’s, while Chris Woakes has also been picked.
Mark Wood will also replace Jimmy Anderson, who has been largely ineffective in the first two Tests.
The extra bowler has been chosen in light of news Ben Stokes is battling a chronic knee injury that has limited his bowling throughout the series.
“I’m not going to lie, that last week took it out of me a little bit,” Stokes said.
“So a big part of something that I had to think of was what would be the best team if I wasn’t to bowl a ball this game, in the worst case scenario. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to bowl, but that was a huge part of the thinking about the team that we picked.”
Play will get underway at 8pm (AEST).
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