Australia turn to Marsh

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Highly-rated all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, left, will replace Brett Lee in Australia's one-day squad after the veteran paceman had his appendix removed

Mitchell Marsh has been called into Australia’s one-day squad for the tour of South Africa after pace bowler Brett Lee had his appendix removed.

All-rounder Marsh, who turns 20 later this month and is considered one of the brightest prospects in Australian cricket, was already in South Africa as part of his country’s Twenty20 squad.

Lee had been ruled out of the Twenty20 and ODIs after being diagnosed with appendicitis and underwent successful surgery in Cape Town on Monday.

Australia’s outgoing national selection panel chairman Andrew Hilditch said: “Mitchell is a very exciting young all-rounder who we consider has the ability to have a significant impact at international level.

“He played extremely well during the recent Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and is a pace bowler who has the ability to bat in the top six, providing great balance and flexibility to the squad.

“The one-day squad already has four specialist fast bowlers in Doug Bollinger, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Patrick Cummins so the NSP did not consider it necessary to replace Brett with a specialist fast bowler.

“Mitchell was very close to selection in the one-day squad when it was initially picked and Brett’s unfortunate illness has provided a great opportunity for him to gain further experience at the international level.”