Marsh to replace Lee

Allrounder Mitchell Marsh will remain in South
Africa for the one-day leg of the tour

Cricket Australia has named allrounder Mitchell Marsh as a replacement for Brett Lee in Australia's ODI squad for the series against South Africa. Marsh is a part of Australia's Twenty20 squad in South Africa and will remain with the team for the one-day leg of the tour, as Lee underwent a surgery for appendicitis on Monday that ruled him out of the tour's limited-overs games.

The one-day squad, even without Lee, has four fast bowlers, so chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said it was not necessary to pick another quick. "The one-day squad already has four specialist fast bowlers in Doug Bollinger, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Patrick Cummins, so the national selection panel 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. 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."

Marsh picked up 12 wickets in six matches on the Australia A tour, and contributed with the bat as well in the one-dayers. In 19 List A matches, he has claimed 13 wickets at 25.00 apiece and has four half-centuries with a highest score of 92.