MacDonald denied any talk of eventually replacing Marsh with David Warner at the top of the batting order, having previously led to speculation about Marnus Labuschagne’s promotion with his comments in a radio interview. There is no realistic prospect of Labuschagne being moved from the three.
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“On the back of a strong Ashes campaign, he’ll probably start at number six, so [that’s] “It’s something that the Perth fans are excited about, and they’re looking forward to seeing him play that aggressive role at six,” MacDonald said of Marsh. “We want him to have that intent that he has shown in previous Test matches and in one-day cricket, so [we’re] Really excited about what he can offer with the bat, the ball and just about the group in general. “He’s someone we like to be around.”
One player who has no plans to announce his Test retirement date is Nathan Lyon, who will largely rebalance the attack after missing sorely in the last three Ashes Tests. MacDonald stated that Lyon was one of the most underrated players in world cricket, and that the team now understands exactly what they have lost in his absence.
“I think in the last series they played it was a more up-tempo brand and they will try to put more pressure on the bowling unit, so I think we will see a little bit of that. But, like anything else, if we run the ball out, it will be difficult to be able to “Keep that going for long periods. We’re not sure how they’ll play it – they’ll signal their intent from the first ball there.”
Lance Morris practices at the WACA on Sunday.credit: Getty Images
“I’m glad someone noticed the fact that we missed him in the last three Test matches. It was a huge loss when he went down. It destabilized what we normally do, and he was on the other end of those quick hits to make 100 Tests on point.”
He added: “He is very important to the way we work. He can finish, he can be aggressive when he wants to, but he makes this attack successful and when he was not there we went through some periods of instability, and we had to find different ways of doing things, and sometimes it seemed It’s like we could manage that, and other times we didn’t.
“I think he flies under the radar in conversations sometimes, and we’re happy to have him every time he plays. I think people will be thinking when he finally hangs up his boots [just] How important he is in this bowling attack. Internally we realize that, externally, sometimes it is not recognized as much as it should be.
Expected Australia lineup: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.