Australia retain squad for Adelaide Test against India

NEW DELHI: Although coach and selector Andrew McDonald has stated that there are some fitness concerns regarding all-rounder Mitchell Marsh's ability to bowl, Australia will not alter the team that suffered a 295-run thumping at the hands of India in the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test played in Perth. In order to allow for one extra net session after the devastating defeat, McDonald announced that the squad would arrive in Adelaide earlier than scheduled for the day-night second Test starting on December 6."The people in that change-room (for Perth Test) are the same people that will be in Adelaide," McDonald was quoted as saying by 'cricket.com.au'."It (making changes) is always a consideration, wherever you go in the world in terms of the personnel you pick for conditions."Marsh has been battling "niggles" since the white-ball tour of England in September, despite bowling just 17 overs in the first Test for a match total of three wickets.As previously disclosed by captain Pat Cummins, Marsh concluded the first Test "a little bit sore."Although McDonald was pleased with Marsh's bowling performance in the first innings, he warned that going forward, his fitness will be strictly watched."Has he (Marsh) pulled up okay? We'll wait and see," McDonald said."No, we didn't feel that (was a weakness). We knew that Mitch (Marsh) was slightly underdone coming in, but I thought the performance in the first innings was satisfactory."Top-order hitter Marnus Labuschagne, who has battled for form with an average of just 13.66 in his previous 10 Test innings, is another player under scrutiny.McDonald, who called Labuschagne "the player we need" and urged him to regain his form, stated that he believes in his skills."That's an ongoing discussion and that ebbs and flows in players' careers, so at the moment he's in one of those patches and no doubt he'll be getting critiqued externally," McDonald said."But internally we're really confident that, at his best, he's the player that we need."When asked if Labuschagne's struggles were due to a technical issue, McDonald responded: "It's always a combination of factors, isn't it, with the mindset?"There's some technical aspects to that also within the mindset play. So as I said, we're really confident that he can turn that around."Nathan McSweeney, a rookie, only scored 10 and 0 in his two innings, therefore asking him to start the innings failed. Neither Beau Webster nor McSweeney had the experience of being an opener, but both had had success in first-class cricket."I think there's been enough players banging down the door. I feel as though we've got some depth there if called upon," he said."I think sometimes people look at the pure numbers of what's happening in Shield cricket, but it's sometimes hard to get a connection with the surfaces they're playing on. So we feel as though we've got ample players available if called upon."McDonald claimed that the team's morale was high despite the crushing loss."I think we've got to own it, and we've got to own that as coaches as well. So there will be a semblance of review around what we have done and what we can learn from it," McDonald said."But I think morale is pretty good. I think this team is really good at the highs and lows, it's quite a level team, so we'll be somewhere in the middle of that."The coach added that the team had been well-prepared and was focused on the challenges that were ahead, even though a performance evaluation would be conducted."We felt as though our planning going in (to Perth) was where we needed it to be. Execution in amongst that is always a question, but we were comfortable with the plans."Clearly, the method with the batters and the way they've been challenged is always going to be a learning moving forward. So we've got some challenges, no doubt about that."