Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25: Australia to add Beau Webster to squad without Pink-Ball Test cap

Australia are set to add uncapped fast bowling all-rounder Beau Webster to their squad for the second pink-ball Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Adelaide starting December 6. A News Corp report on Wednesday said Webster had been selected as injury cover for fellow all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who was left in “pain” after the first match of the series, where Australia suffered a 295-run defeat to India in four days at the Perth Stadium. Although there is a ten-day gap between the first and second Tests, if Marsh is unable to recover for the Adelaide game after over ten overs in Perth, then Webster has a chance of becoming Australia’s 468th-ranked men’s cricketer.

“Did he stop well? Let’s wait and see. We knew Mitch (Marsh) was a little short coming in, but I thought the performance in the first innings was satisfactory,” head coach Andrew MacDonald said after the defeat in Perth. .

Webster scored 61 and 49 and also picked 3/81 and 2/25 with the ball in Tasmania’s 55-run victory over New South Wales in a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground as the state secured their first win in current season.

Since the start of the 2022/23 season, Webster has scored 1,788 runs at an average of 51.08, including five hundreds and nine fifties. He also took 30 wickets at an average of 29.30 in the final Sheffield Shield season. In the recent 2-0 Serie A win over India A, he scored 145 runs and picked seven wickets.

“(Webster) is a special player at the moment. Every time I feel like we’re in trouble, I feel like I can throw him the ball and it seems like he’s just capable of creating something, or every time we have the same problems with the bat, then he’ll be able to dig us out of it.

“He showed his class again in this game with valuable runs, first and second innings and then obviously taking the last two wickets. It was exceptional and he just really wants to get the ball in those situations. He’s a great guy in our group.” and a true leader.

“I know there is talk about him potentially becoming a reserve all-rounder (for the Test team) and I am very supportive of that move if they want to go that route. I think he earned the respect of the competition with those seamers and it probably took a year or two for people to really see that,” Tasmania captain Jordan Silk told reporters after the game ended in Sydney.

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