New Delhi: Australia has included the 30-year-old all-rounder Beau Webster as a standby replacement for Mitchell Marsh who has a repute for having clay feet when it comes to fitness. Marsh has already sounded the ringing bells after pulling up ‘sore’ in the 295-run thumping that the Aussies received at Perth.
Naturally, the Australian Cricket Board has decided to address the problem at the earliest and drafted in the 30-year-old all-rounder in place of Marsh (if required). While the inclusion has been applauded by many Australian cricketers like former Aussie cricketer Ian Healy, the move has been seen as a ‘rushed in’ decision on the part of Cricket Australia.
Healy also couldn’t hide his displeasure from the word ‘standby’ and said:
I don’t really like just adding him to the squad unless he’s going to play, drop the 12th man…
Marsh’s fitness has always remained a concern for Australian cricket and after bowling the most overs he has in a Test match in three years during the Perth Test it was sure that the Australian T20 captain would face the problems of endurance.
Who is Beau Webster?
Beau Webster is a 30-year-old who bowls right-arm pace and is more than handy with the bat, like Marsh. He has had an impressive outing in the Sheffield Shield for Tasmania over the past two years, accumulating 1,788 runs, with five centuries and nine fifties.
Earlier, in a Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales, he scored 61 and 49 and took five wickets. He was last year’s Sheffield Shield player of the year, with more than 900 runs and 30 wickets in the season—only the second player in Sheffield Shield history after Sir Garfield Sobers to do so.
So far, Webster has scored 5,297 runs at an average of 37.83 and taken 148 wickets in first-class cricket. He was also one of the standout performers for Australia A against their Indian counterparts before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, with important knocks of 61* and 46*, and figures of 3/19 and 3/49 against the visiting India A side this month.