Stoinis gets Australia call for remaining Tests vs India

Australia's uncapped all-rounder Marcus Stoinis was on Thursday named as a replacement for Mitchell Marsh, who was ruled out of the remainder of the four-match Test rubber in India.

According to Cricket Australia's (CA) chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns, Stoinis's experience of playing for the Australia A side in the subcontinent, got him the call ahead of fellow all-rounders Moises Henriques and Jack Wildermuth.

"Marcus got across the line simply because during Australia A here a couple of years ago, he performed very well," Hohns said.

"Secondly, we consider to give us as many options as we possibly could have going forward in this series... we considered the stronger bowler to be the best option at this stage. That's what got him across the line."

Stoinis, who played for the Kings XI Punjab in the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will now vie with Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Agar and Usman Khawaja for the position vacated in the top six by the injured pacer Mitchell Marsh.

Marsh was struggling with a shoulder injury and will return to Australia after a disappointing campaign, in which he scored 48 runs in four innings and bowled a total of five overs in the first two Tests in Pune and Bangalore.

With the series squared at 1-1, all eyes will now be on the third Test, starting from March 16 at Ranchi.

--IANS

tri/dg