Cape Town: Nic Maddinson has been dropped and Steve Smith is yet to prove his fitness for the pivotal third Test against South Africa at Newlands.
Maddinson, a late call-up to the team who made three low scores out of four innings as an opener, will join backup wicketkeeper Sam Harper in flying home early, with Josh Inglis and Cameron Green back to fitness.
Smith, who batted briefly at the main session on Sunday, is still recovering from the neck injury that severely affected him in Gqeberha.
His fitness status may also play a role in what happens with Marnus Labuschagne. Inglis and Green are both strongly in the mix to bat either in the top three or further down the order.
“He’s got a bit of a neck issue going at the moment. You guys would have seen that play out in the nets. I think he had about 20 odd minutes in the nets, give or take. Today he’ll progress that,” coach Andrew McDonald said of Smith.
“He didn’t have his helmet on yesterday as well, so that’ll take part and hopefully progresses. We feel like it’s going to be a pretty steep progression in terms of he should be available. You’ll see that play out in terms of what happens. But we’re confident that he will be available.“
Australia's selectors are due to finalise their team later on Monday around their final training session ahead of a game they must win to retain the top spot on the ICC's Test rankings.
Selection chair George Bailey said the panel would not be discarding Maddinson, and wanted him and Harper to return to Sheffield Shield ranks to make runs.
“Would you like more runs in it? Yes, so that’s okay. Did it allow us to set the rest of the team up the way that we wanted to whilst we’re working with the group we have? Yes,” Bailey said. “We always talk about what do we see when we see player’s at their best. I think you saw a glimpse of that in the second innings in Durban.
“With him going home, it was wanting to be clear to him it wasn’t a stopgap and that’s it, and it’s a discard. The same reasons that and process we work through to get him to be on the table for here, and ultimately to play.
“They’ll be the same questions that we’ll ask across the home summer to India as well. So, just being clear with he and Harps that, yeah, they were here for the right reasons, but yeah, more runs.”
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