Melbourne: Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh requires reconstructive surgery on his shoulder injury, which will sideline him for up to nine months and end his hopes of participating in this year’s Ashes series, local media reported on Monday.
Marsh, a pace-bowling all-rounder, struggled with the shoulder injury throughout Australia’s home summer and was ruled out of Australia’s remaining two Tests in India last week.
Surgery, which the Western Australian newspaper said was “vital” if he was ever to bowl at full pace again, would effectively put the 25-year-old out of contention for the home Ashes series, which starts in Brisbane in late November.
Marsh was hailed as the solution to Australia’s lack of a quality all-rounder when he made his Test debut in late 2014 but has been widely criticised for his contributions in the longer format with returns of 674 runs and 29 wickets in 21 matches.
During the first two Tests against India at Pune and Bengaluru, the Western Australian scored 48 runs in four innings and bowled just five overs.
Indian captain Kohli, meanwhile, slipped one place to fourth while Ravichandran Ashwin was back as top all-rounder as well as maintaining his No. 1 place among bowlers in the ICC Test rankings released on Monday. Kohli (847 points) has had an ordinary Test series against Australia, scoring 0, 13, 12 and 15 in the two matches so far.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson gained two places to reach second spot in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen. The latest rankings, which took into account performances in the first Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Galle, which the home side won by 259 runs, saw Williamson leapfrog Joe Root and Kohli after his fine knock of 130.
Williamson, who was top ranked for a brief while in November-December 2015, is now on 869 points, 21 points ahead of third-placed Root (848) but a good 67 points adrift of table leader Steve Smith of Australia, who’s on 936 points.
Another Indian Cheteshwar Pujara is unchanged on sixth.
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