MELBOURNE — A painful ankle injury to paceman Peter Siddle and the impressive pace of all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has boosted Australia’s chances of playing two specialist spinners on home soil for the first time in a decade.
Having defeated West Indies in Melbourne to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, Australia hosts the third and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the nation’s only wicket that could be called ‘spin-friendly’.
The SCG hosted Australia’s last two-pronged spin assault on a home wicket, when leg-spinners Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill teamed up in a 2006 defeat of South Africa.
Off-spinner Nathan Lyon has been Australia’s first-choice slow bowler for some time but has almost never had company.
He teamed up with debutant Steven O’Keefe for a Test match in Dubai against Pakistan last year but both were flayed by the opposing batsmen in defeat and the experiment was canned.
Siddle had a reduced workload Tuesday as Australia’s bowlers closed out a 177-run victory on day four at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and came off for treatment on his foot.
He will be re-assessed in the lead-up to the Sydney Test which starts Sunday.
All-rounder Mitchell Marsh stepped up to bowl more overs in Siddle’s absence and took 4-69, impressing with his pace and energy.
Marsh, who tipped the radar over 140 km per hour on some of his deliveries Tuesday, could also shape up as a bonus third seamer should Australia go for two spinners, Lehmann said.
