Aus vs Ind 2024-25 – ‘Unfair’ to question Mitchell Marsh’s fitness as pressure grows on Test spot

“Across the entirety of the series, it’s been relatively light, so I’d expect both attacks to be in decent shape to be able to press [in the final Test]. So does that mean you need a fifth bowler? I think you still need a fifth bowler. But are you going to put a huge demand on the fifth bowler, potentially not.”

However, Marsh’s limited contributions have further exacerbated his lean returns with the bat. The reigning Allan Border Medalist was Australia’s best Test batter last season with match-winning half-centuries in four of Australia’s six wins across series against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand. But in this series he has scored just 73 runs at 10.42, with 47 of those coming in the second innings in Perth when the game was long gone. Nathan McSweeney scored 72 at 14.40 before he was dropped for the fourth Test.

Despite the poor series and a history of self-doubt, McDonald believed Marsh was in a good frame of mind.

“Would he like better performances? There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “Over four Test matches, he hasn’t been able to deliver at the level that he would like and we would like, but yeah he’s up and about. We just won a Test match. He’s in a pretty good headspace.”

McDonald was confident his trio of quicks could handle the short turnaround to Sydney despite Starc’s soreness.

“Anytime you get through the game, it’s always a good indicator that you’re a chance at the next game,” McDonald said. “It didn’t stop him. Clearly, there was a little bit of discomfort early on in spells, but once he got warm, it seemed as though he was pretty free. [His] ball speeds were good.

“We’ll see how everyone recovers. Bowling last, it was a pretty attritional game, something that we’re not used to in the last few years. Clearly Starcy’s carrying something of some description. We’ll assess that. But other than that, it looks as though we got through pretty unscathed, but [with a] short turnaround recovery is important, and we’ll assess what the team looks like in Sydney based upon the surface, as we always do.”

Australia released Richardson to play a BBL game for Perth Scorchers in Adelaide on New Year’s Eve but he will return to the squad on Wednesday and McDonald was confident, despite his injury history, that he could be called upon to play if needed.

“Very confident,” he said. “He’s here for a reason. So if we weren’t confident, he wouldn’t be here. He’s had a heavy week with us in the nets. All indications are he’d be capable of bowling 40-plus overs if he was called upon.

“Sean Abbott’s there as well. We feel like, [the] SCG is his home ground, so he will be serviceable if called upon as well. It’ll be about assessing our frontline quicks and then making decisions from there.”

Alex Malcolm is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo