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If West Indies prepare pitches with pace and bounce, this could be a testing tour for an Indian team that offers a glimpse into the future

Sriram Veera in Port of Spain03-Jun-2011″Life is jokey but it’s bloody serious. You got to plan. West Indies didn’t do it.” Ralph, an old caretaker of an inn, drawls as he lights up a cigarette. It’s 11 pm and the small neighbourhood in Port of Spain is quiet. The glow from his cigarette lights up his grizzly beard. “We were too arrogant when we were winning and didn’t plan for the future. Talent is all dried up now and we are watching the ego fights between the board and the players. It’s all downhill. It’s good to see India planning for the future by bringing in the younger players.”It’s a puzzling series in many ways. The weaker team is ignoring its stars and testing its bench strength. The stronger team is being forced to test its bench strength while its stars choose to rest, some in fatigue, some following injury. The agenda is still pretty simple and straightforward: It’s India’s series to lose. They are the new world champions and will have to win this ODI series. Never mind that they are missing a couple of big players – a champion team can’t have any excuses.West Indies ran out of excuses for their decline a long time ago and are now scraping the bottom of the barrel of hope. It’s a grim scenario. The evidence screamed out when the flight from London descended on Barbados. It was a breathtaking visual – a sparkling sea framing the houses like a jewel – but the question that immediately came to mind was, how on earth did such a tiny island produce a battery of world-class players? Now that same smallness offered another scary thought. How on earth will they find world-class players from such a small area? Trinidad is a much bigger place but big, of course, is relative.Sometimes a win can just prove to be a setback. Is West Indies’ recent Test win over Pakistan a boon or a bane? Will it make the hardliners in the WICB turn more adamant in their vision for a future that doesn’t involve the bigger stars like Chris Gayle? Or does that win offer concrete proof of their new vision? This series against India can help decide it.It was a series against India in 1976 that turned the corner for West Indies in many ways. bloodbath in Sabina Park when Clive Lloyd, hurt after India chased down 403 in the previous Test, unleashed his fast men against the hapless visitors is a landmark event in West Indian cricket history. That victory made Lloyd, and by extension West Indies, realise that pace was the way to go and his gang of fast men went on to unleash such joyous violence – that still stirs the heart of cricket fans – around the world. Fire was raging in Babylon and Lloyd wasn’t fiddling. Nostalgia is fun but not when the present is bleak.If West Indies are to do well in this series, they can’t reproduce tracks that were on offer in the series against Pakistan. If India has a weakness, it’s against pace and bounce and West Indies, despite having a legspinner as their strike bowler, need to exploit it – like they did so successfully in the World Twenty20 held in the Caribbean region. Will they go for it?For India, the absence of the seniors is the best thing that could have happened. This squad is perfect to test the bench strength. It’s also the perfect setting for the new India coach, Duncan Fletcher, to ease himself in. He has been ostensibly roped in to help India prepare for a future sans the big names. Now he doesn’t have to wait for the end of India’s tour of Australia early next year to prepare for that eventuality. This series gives him a taste of things to come.In the Tests, India are going with a new set of openers and in the ODIs, they will also be infusing fresh blood into the middle order. If West Indies are able to produce tracks that aid bounce, this Indian team can be tested by the likes of Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul and Andre Russell. It still won’t be easy, but at least it will give them a chance.If the tracks are flat, this could well turn out to be like the 1971 series between the two teams, when a debutant named Sunil Gavaskar gorged on a second-string attack to pile up the runs and launch himself into a calypso. This Indian team might not have anyone in the calibre of a Gavaskar but it’s a team filled with ambitious young men, desperately seeking success and fighting for the few available spots when the bigger stars return for sterner tests. It’s almost a fight for survival for many. Life is jokey but it’s bloody serious.

Cricket Kenya has appointed former international Alpesh Vadher, as chairman of their newly constituted selection panel

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jun-2011Cricket Kenya has appointed former batsman Alpesh Vadher, who was part of their 1999 and 2003 World Cup squads, as chairman of their newly-constituted selection panel. The three-member panel will also include a selector and the elite development head, and will be advised by the national coach and captain, who are yet to be named.The panel will look after selection processes across national teams, with an emphasis on the senior, A-team and under-19 squads. It will recommend players for central contracts and nominate a national captain. Vadher will also be part of the panel that selects the new national coach.Board chief Tom Sears said Kenyan cricket would benefit from Vadher’s experience. “Alpesh has represented his country with distinction and has a wealth of knowledge and experience which he can offer,” he said. “It was evident that we did not have the necessary provisions in place to ensure we have a robust selection and talent identification programme. There is no doubt that Alpesh can contribute enormously in these areas.”Vadher said he is pleased with the changes being implemented in Kenya’s domestic cricket and the talent available in the country. “There is a great deal of young talent in Kenya. We need to bring those young players through if we are to compete successfully on the international stage in the coming years.”I am confident that with the changes Cricket Kenya is introducing, particularly in terms of domestic competition, we will have a stronger and wider pool of players to choose from going forward.”The panel is part of several changes being implemented in Kenyan cricket following a dismal World Cup campaign. Kenya went through the tournament without a win, after which coach Eldine Baptiste resigned and captain Jimmy Kamande was sacked. New 20 and 50-over domestic competitions were announced and the central contracts system was overhauled, with quarterly reviews defining whether a player is retained or let go.

Chris Tremlett has been ruled out of the third against India at Edgbaston having failed to recover from the hamstring and back injuries that forced him to miss the previous match at Trent Bridge

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2011Chris Tremlett has been ruled out of the third against India at Edgbaston having failed to recover from the back injury that forced him to miss the previous match at Trent Bridge.He had been included in the 13-man squad for Wednesday’s Test but wasn’t able to train on Monday or Tuesday, so there was no chance of him being considered. An ECB update added he “will receive ongoing treatment ahead of the fourth Test”.Tremlett initially suffered a hamstring injury towards the end of the Lord’s Test and then went down with a back spasm during training the day before the Trent Bridge match started. With the final Test starting at The Oval after only a three day gap, it remains doubtful whether Tremlett will play any further part in this series.Andrew Strauss said: “It’s sad for Chris that he has a bulging disc in his back and that should clear up sooner or later, but this Test has come too soon.”It means that Tim Bresnan will retain his place for Edgbaston after a superb all-round performance last week where he scored 90 and claimed a career-best 5 for 48 in the second innings. Steven Finn is also part of the squad but is unlikely to be considered given the success of the current unit in securing a 2-0 series lead.”One of the great things is people have come in and performed,” Strauss said. “Tim got his chance because Chris, who had done brilliantly, was injured and he took it with both hands. Ravi Bopara is coming in for this game and he’s got the chance to do something similar.”The pressing concern for Strauss though, even more than injuries, is England’s tendency to slip up when a big victory is in sight. Whether the Ashes loss in Headingley 2009, or again in Perth over the winter, England have had trouble wrapping up a series in the past. This time, though, Strauss thinks England will learn from the experience.”I certainly thought we learnt from lessons of Headingley in ’09 because I think we started looking at the outcome of the game rather than starting well,” he said. “Since then we’ve been keen to keep everyone’s feet on the ground whether winning or losing. This is one of those circumstances.”There is no point looking too far ahead. The rankings are not at the forefront of our minds right at the moment. What is at the forefront of our minds is starting this Test match well and hopefully getting into a position to win it at the end of this week.”Despite the measured talk from the captain himself, the groundswell of opinion since Trent Bridge is that Strauss’s England side are one of the best in the country’s recent history. Andrew Flintoff was one who insisted the current side are better than the 2004-05 vintage that Flintoff featured in. Strauss, however, rejected the idea.”Comparisons are odious and not all that helpful,” he said. “When you are involved in a side, it makes no difference whether people say if the side is as good as another side or not. It makes no difference to your preparation for a Test match at all. It’s not something I spend any time thinking about because if I did, I would subconsciously taking my eyes off what’s important for us as a side.”

Alan Richardson bagged a six-wicket haul as Worcestershire boosted their hopes of avoiding relegation and dented Lancashire’s title bid with a crushing 10-wicket win

01-Sep-2011
Scorecard
Alan Richardson made excellent use of a helpful pitch to boost Worcestershire’s survival hopes•PA PhotosLancashire have put themselves in contention to win the County Championship by being in some ways a team greater than the sum of its parts, winning eight matches by pooling their resources more effectively than rivals with more obvious stand-out performers. Above all, their asset has been character and it is that quality that will come under close scrutiny now.They were beaten here by 10 wickets in a day and a half, having batted poorly in both innings. The result, built around a valiant near-century by James Cameron and the excellence of veteran seamer Alan Richardson, who finished with 6 for 22, not only makes the race for the title even more of a close-run battle but gives Worcestershire every chance of avoiding relegation at Yorkshire’s expense.Given that they began the season as every pundit’s favourite to go back to Division Two, their achievement deserves almost as much attention as Lancashire’s apparent attack of the jitters although inevitably it will not be given it.The fact is that Glen Chapple’s side began this round as title favourites but will end it having been knocked off the top of the Division One table and possibly down to third place. Warwickshire – perhaps even Durham, though they have only one match to go after the current round – will look at their own chance with fresh enthusiasm.Lancashire picked off the last four Worcestershire wickets in the first hour, Chapple himself – showing no sign of the knee problem that had kept him off the field for part of the previous afternoon – taking three after Kyle Hogg had broken the key partnership between and Cameron and Ben Scott at 97 when the wicketkeeper edged a wideish ball to his Lancashire counterpart. Richard Jones was lbw offering no stroke before Cameron, having reached 98, was rather cruelly denied his hundred, bowled by one of several balls at the Diglis End that kept low. Kemar Roach followed him in quite quickly after another straight ball beat his optimistic swing.Worcestershire’s lead of 76 looked handy but Lancashire nonetheless would have expected to set themselves something relatively testing for the last innings. Instead, they were dismissed for 80 in just over 30 overs, the end coming just before 3pm. It is their lowest all-out total since Glamorgan dismissed them for 51 at Liverpool in 1997.Richardson, who is enjoying the most productive season of his career at 36, followed Chapple’s example of bowling full and straight and Lancashire’s batsmen, gripped by a combination of impatience and panic, succumbed one after another, whether by failing to move their feet, playing back when they should have been forward, or else just swinging carelessly across the line. Five of his six wickets were leg-before.Roach, the West Indian fast bowler whose pace only added to Lancashire’s jitters, bowled Chapple and Saj Mahmood with two frighteningly quick deliveries, claiming a third victim when Hogg, who had hit him a few meaty blows in the first innings, stepped back in search of another but was again beaten for pace.Stephen Moore, the Lancashire opener, was absent, attending the birth of his first child in Manchester at the very moment his teammates were falling apart. But even Peter Moores, the Lancashire coach, admitted it would have been unlikely he would have made much difference.”I don’t know what difference Stephen would have made but babies take precedence over cricket matches and quite rightly so,” Moores said. “He has had a little girl and we are delighted for him. There was never a dilemma over whether he would stay because family comes first.”It is disappointing result obviously but we batted poorly on both innings. We did not score enough runs in either to create any kind of pressure and there can be no complaints. The pitch had a little bit in it, a little bit uneven in bounce, but we lost five wickets to full straight balls which you cannot afford to do, especially in the top six.”But like the defeat in the Twenty20 semi-final last weekend, we have to take it on the chin. We will scrub ourselves up and prepare for next week. We have two matches left and if we win both I think we will win the title. Win one and we are in the frame. We will find out over the next two games if we have the character to do it.”Lancashire’s batting was collectively bad and while Moores backed away from coming down hard on his own players – in public, at any rate – he must have despaired at their lack of application and times and his assessment of Cameron’s performance said plenty.”He showed what could be done. He played himself in, didn’t play and miss an awful lot and didn’t get hit on the pad an awful lot. He showed the right game for that pitch and can take pride in the fact that, batting wise, he was the difference between the sides.”Richardson, meanwhile, having raised his tally to 62 wickets for the Championship season confirmed the view of pitch liaison officer Jack Birkenshaw that only negligible blame could be attached to the behaviour of the track.”I have played on a lot worse wickets this year, a lot more bowler friendly at least,” he said. “It did a little bit and maybe the odd one stayed down but in general I thought it was a really good wicket, certainly not a day and a half wicket.””We did not see that coming this morning, for sure, and I was a bit surprised that Lancashire crumbled as they did because they have shown a lot of fight this season but it was just one of those days when we bowled well and it all clicked.”The Staffordshire-born seamer reckons Worcestershire have earned the right now to determine their own fate after putting clear daylight between themselves and next-to-bottom Yorkshire.”We set out this season to be as competitive as possible and apart from in a couple of games we really have been competitive,” he said. “We have surprised some people, given some teams a bit of a fright and we have scraped together four wins. The fact that we are two games from the end and not in the relegation zone is a reflection of how well we have played.”At both ends of the table, at this stage what lies ahead is as much a test of nerve as technique. Lancashire, under pressure every season to stop the constant reminders of how long it is since they last won the Championship – 1934 in their own right, 1950 when they shared it with Surrey – must now prove that theirs is strong enough. Hampshire are their next opponents, at Liverpool next week, followed by Somerset at Taunton in the final round.

A round-up of the fourth match-day of the Quadrangular Under-19 series in India

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Oct-2011India Under-19s continued to dominate in the youth quadrangular series in Visakhapatnam, registering a comprehensive six-wicket win against Australia Under-19s.Batting first, Australia was in trouble straightaway, losing their top three for only three runs to Sandeep Sharma. Ashton Turner and captain Kurtis Patterson essayed a brief recovery, but once offspinner Baba Aparajith broke the stand, none of the lower middle could get going as Australia folded for 173 in 48.5 overs. In reply, India were solid, knocking off the runs with 17.4 overs to spare. The chase was built around a number of 30 and 40 something cameos from the top order – Aparajith top scored with an unbeaten 48. This is India’s fourth win in four games in the series.A team performance helped Sri Lanka Under 19s to a two-wicket win against West Indies Under-19s.Choosing to bat, West Indies slumped to 94 for 5 in 28 overs, before a 152-run stand for the sixth wicket between Kavem Hodge and Justin Greaves carried them to a competitive total. Fast bowler Lahiru Madushanka and left-arm spinner Amila Aponso were the pick of the bowlers, claiming five wickets between them, as West Indies put on 258 for 8 in their 50. Sri Lanka’s top and middle order all contributed in the chase, with each of the top seven scoring between 22 and 47. While West Indies kept pecking away at the wickets, the cameos were enough to carry Sri Lanka home with nine balls in hand. This is Sri Lanka’s third win in four games, while West Indies are yet to register a win in the tournament.

Australian Shane Jurgensen has been appointed Bangladesh’s bowling coach of the Bangladesh national team

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Oct-2011Australian Shane Jurgensen has been appointed Bangladesh’s bowling coach of the Bangladesh national team. Jurgensen, 35, has agreed to a contract which would keep him with the Bangladesh team until June 2013, and is expected to arrive in Dhaka on Sunday.”Jurgensen is a vastly experienced bowling specialist,” said BCB Chief Executive Manzur Ahmed. “He has also had an accomplished cricket career and his input would be extremely important for our cricketers.”Jurgensen was New Zealand’s bowling coach between 2008 and 2010 and had also recently been a coach on New Zealand Cricket’s high performance programme. He has coached for nearly 15 years at a number of different levels since his first trip to the United Kingdom with Horsham Cricket Club at the age of 21.Something of a journeyman cricketer during his playing days in Australian state cricket, Jurgensen played for Western Australia and Tasmania before winning a place at his home state Queensland.While playing for Tasmania, he was the first cricketer in history to take 10 wickets or more in a Sheffield Shield Final in March 2002, and was also the first to take a first-class hat-trick at the Bellerive Oval.

A round-up of the action from the fourth day of play at the Regional Super50 2011-12

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Oct-2011Chris Gayle bulldozed Combined Campuses and Colleges to the tune of 147 runs – 22 more than they managed in their chase of 260 – to propel Jamaica to the top of Group B. CCC inserted Jamaica after winning the toss at Georgetown and were consigned to a leather-hunt almost immediately. Gayle unleashed his fury in full force after a near three-hour delay reduced the game to 37 overs a side. He belted 11 fours and eight sixes in his 110-ball effort before falling to Jason Dawes off the penultimate ball of the innings. It was small consolation for Dawes, whose nine overs were looted for 104 runs. Xavier Marshall backed up Gayle with a half-century to set CCC a steep target. Incisive opening spells from Krishmar Santokie and Andre Russell reduced CCC to 10 for 3. Thereafter, the chase meandered meaninglessly into an exercise in crease-occupation as CCC finished with 125 for 5 in 37 overs.Trinidad & Tobago’s unconventional spin-twins – Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine – picked up a combined 10 for 82 in 23.3 overs to set up a five-wicket win against Leeward Islands at Providence Stadium, Guyana. Narine finished with 6 for 48, as Leeward stumbled listlessly to be bowled out for 94 in the 26th over, with only three batsmen making it to double figures. Anthony Martin then responded with a four-wicket haul in decidedly spinner-friendly conditions, but Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 34 took T&T home in under 15 overs, sealing them the two bonus points for scoring at better than run-a-ball.

Simon Katich is looking forward to putting his disciplinary hearing behind him after he escaped suspension from Cricket Australia for cutting comments he made about Michael Clarke in October

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2011Simon Katich is looking forward to putting his disciplinary hearing behind him after he escaped suspension from Cricket Australia for cutting comments he made about Michael Clarke in October. Katich pleaded guilty at a CA Code of Behaviour hearing, chaired by retired county court judge Gordon Lewis in Melbourne on Monday, and was handed an official reprimand.”It’s not something you want to go through but I’m glad it’s out of the way now and very grateful for Commissioner Lewis’ findings,” Katich said on SEN radio after the hearing.”Obviously I said things for a reason. At the time I was still coming to terms with the mixed messages I’d been receiving over the previous few months from the chairman of selectors and from other people involved in the team. From that point of view I said what I said, but at the end of the day now I just want to move forward and play some good cricket for New South Wales and put this behind me.”The hearing was delayed from its original date of November 21 due to scheduling conflicts, after Katich was charged by Cricket Australia for his comments on October 28, when he suggested that his dressing-room stoush with Clarke in 2009 had contributed to his axing from Australia’s side. After scoring a Sheffield Shield hundred, Katich was asked whether the appointment of a new chairman of selectors, John Inverarity, would help his cause in winning a recall.”It’s pleasing to hear but I think you don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that it’s not just the selectors that had a part in sending me on my way,” Katich said at the time. “I mean to be brutally honest obviously what happened in the dressing room here a few years ago didn’t help my cause. And obviously the captain and coach are selectors.”Just because he [Inverarity] is going to be chairman of selectors or whatever role it is I wouldn’t have thought that’d make too much difference.”When asked if he could expect to play for Australia again while Clarke remained captain, Katich said: “I wouldn’t have thought so. That’s probably why I’m in this position in the first place.”In the dressing rooms after the 2009 Sydney Test, Katich grabbed the then vice-captain Clarke by the throat after an argument over when the team song would be sung. After Monday’s hearing, Katich softened his tone when asked about his relationship with Clarke.”We were able to play cricket for a good couple of years there in the same team without it causing any problems, so from my point of view I didn’t see any dramas in that respect,” Katich said. “I guess I have just been searching for answers as to why I wasn’t in the team, given that I felt I’d been performing to a reasonable standard over the last three years.”Katich was set to fly back to Canberra on Monday evening to play in the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Tasmania at Manuka Oval, starting on Tuesday.

Vijay Zol says a meeting with Virender Sehwag earlier this year provided the confidence to amass a mammoth score

Nagraj Gollapudi10-Dec-2011In May this year, while at a camp with the India Under-16 team, Vijay Zol met Virender Sewhag at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. Sehwag learned that Zol was the highest scorer in the latest Vijay Merchant Trophy, the domestic U-16 tournament. Zol also told Sehwag that during the final against Delhi he had suffered from torn ligaments in his left knee and had been out of cricket for nearly four months after surgery in February.Sehwag gave the now 17-year-old Zol several pep talks and an unexpected present as well. “Sehwag asked me about my knee injury and spoke about other things and then gifted me a bat,” Zol recalls. The bat had a simple message on it: “Dear Vijay Zol, Best Wishes. Sehwag.” He still marvels at the gift and was certain he would never play with it.Zol, who hails from Jalna in Maharashtra, says the confidence he derived from the chat with his idol played a crucial role in his remarkable unbeaten 451 for Maharashtra U-19s against Assam U-19s in the on-going league match of the Cooch Behar Trophy in Nasik. Though there are no official records to verify exactly where he stands in the record books in youth cricket, Zol’s score was higher than Bhausaheb Nimbalkar’s landmark 443, the highest first-class score by an Indian, set in 1948 during a Ranji match between Maharashtra and Kathiawar.Asked about his feat, Zol said his record was still sinking in. “When you score 451 you can’t even express exactly how one feels,” Zol told ESPNcricinfo over the telephone from Nasik at the end of the third, and penultimate, day’s play.Zol, a left-hand opener, took nearly 11 hours, faced 467 deliveries, and hit 53 boundaries along with two sixes in his outstanding innings, which was more than double his previous career-best score of 222. That double-century came against Gujarat in the leagues stages of last year’s Vijay Merchant tournament. Asked about the ingredients needed to play a marathon innings, Zol picked out patience as the most necessary factor. “Shot selection is equally important. The margin of error is very minimal so you have to be on your toes always.”Zol said the pitch in Nasik was good for batsmen. “The bowling attack was decent but the track supported me a lot.” Zol also praised the contributions of his team-mates. The best partnership was of 284, with his opening partner Jai Pande, who missed a century by three runs.Zol completed his century in the first session of the match and carried on to reach 264 by stumps on the first day. David Andrews, the Maharashtra coach, was confident that Zol could go for a truly massive score given that the conditions were helpful. On the second day, Zol continued to play his shots freely, putting on 230 with Maharashtra’s No. 3 Abhishek Salvi.At the end of the second session, Maharashtra had amassed 763 for 4 and decided to declare. Zol was 49 short of 500 runs. “I was not disappointed. The team comes first. It was a flat pitch so we needed time to get 20 wickets,” he said of the decision to declare. On Saturday, Assam were bundled out for 158 in their first innings and were 140 for 4 after being forced to follow-on.If he wasn’t at the match, Zol could have been at the BCCI Awards ceremony in Chennai to pick up his prize for Best Under-16 Cricketer, possibly from Sehwag himself, and met the other Indian players too. Zol said he was happy to be in Nasik, helping Maharashtra towards a win. “It is an honour to get an award from the BCCI but I would have missed something more important than that,” Zol, a standard nine drop-out, said. He was happy his dad Hari Zol, an advocate, collected the award on his behalf.Zol said his feat means a lot to him. “It is a big milestone for me. I know my ability now and how far I can go.” When he crossed 400 it was revealed to Zol that he was close to Nimbalkar’s famous score. “I had never heard that name ever,” was Zol’s frank response. For the moment, his knowledge of cricket history does not matter. His own name is now in the history books.

Ben Hilfenhaus, the leading wicket-taker in Australia’s Test series victory over India, has been recalled to the national ODI squad to replace the injured Brett Lee

Daniel Brettig06-Feb-2012Ben Hilfenhaus, the leading wicket-taker in Australia’s Test series victory over India, has been recalled to the national ODI squad to replace the injured Brett Lee – his first limited overs duty in more than two years.The national selector John Inverarity and his panel chose an experienced name to cover for Lee rather than picking another youthful pace bowler, affording Hilfenhaus the chance to play his first 50-over internationals since a tour of India in late 2009.On that tour Hilfenhaus suffered from knee tendinitis that would subsequently keep him out of international cricket for most of the 2009-10 season, and had been employed exclusively in Test matches since.While naming Hilfenhaus, Inverarity suggested the XI for the Perth match against Sri Lanka on Friday was likely to be unchanged from the one that defeated India in Melbourne on Sunday. However Hilfenhaus may play in the third match, against India in Adelaide on Sunday at Adelaide Oval.”The NSP has named Ben Hilfenhaus in the squad for the game against Sri Lanka in Perth on Friday,” Inverarity said. “Ben will replace the injured Brett Lee. The bowling attack for Perth is likely to be the same as the one that did so well in Melbourne and Ben will be in Perth to provide cover.”Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle have been resting in reserve since the completion of the Test series, which reaped 27 wickets at 17.22 for the Tasmanian after he was recalled for the Boxing Day Test.Siddle (23 wickets at 18.65) is likely to come into contention for the second half of the ODI series, his exertions in nine consecutive Test matches deemed worthy of a longer break than Hilfenhaus’ four.As previously flagged by the selectors, Mitchell Marsh will join the ODI squad after the completion of the Sheffield Shield fixture between Queensland and Western Australia at the Gabba. Two of the other mooted contenders for Lee’s spot, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Alister McDermott, are also taking part in the match.