Western Australia will be without suspended fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile for their Sheffield Shield match against Victoria beginning on Friday at the WACA.
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Victorian fast bowler Scott Boland has also been placed on standby in the squad, but otherwise the line-up is unchanged from the group that beat New Zealand in the day-night Test in Adelaide.
The 28-year-old Western Australian comes into the 12-man squad for first of three tests in the series against the Caribbean Islanders, which starts at Bellerive Oval Hobart a week on Thursday.
Coulter-Nile was a member of Australia’s one-day squad against England following the unsuccessful Ashes series in July-August, but has not played a Sheffield Shield game since March.
“He [Coulter-Nile] has been a proven performer for Australia in short-format cricket and has very good pace. We think he is ready to compete at Test level if required”.
Coulter-Nile, who has played 13 one-dayers and 11 Twenty20s for Australia, only recently started bowling following a shoulder injury.
“He’s bowling very well at the moment and is not far off selection”.
The selectors’ discussions were further clouded by Andrew Fekete’s recent loss of form that saw last year’s stand-out Sheffield Shield quick dropped from the Tasmania team barely a month after he was named in the Australia for the (ultimately postponed) tour of Bangladesh.
Starc has a stress fracture in his right foot and will play no part in the three-test series.
“I guess we’re on the state of affairs now the place due to the 2 Mitchells, one retiring and one being injured, that we do want a little bit of tempo up entrance”.
“Hopefully all the bowlers from the Adelaide test recover well over the next few days but we are mindful our fast bowlers have had a heavy workload over this series”, Marsh added.
Steve Smith indicated after his side’s three-wicket win over New Zealand that Siddle should be OK to play in Hobart. “The last couple of days of a Test match can be quite hard for a fast bowler”.
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If more of those sorts of pitches are prepared for Test matches, then seamers who bowl in the low to mid 130s (kph) will come under consideration by the selectors, Marsh claimed.
