Ferguson called into Australia one-day team

SYDNEY - South Australian Callum Ferguson, who scored a blazing century against Western Australian last week, has been called into the Australian one-day squad for the rest of the one-day series with Sri Lanka.

He comes into the squad in place of left-hand batsman Shaun Marsh, who injured his back in Wednesday night’s one-wicket loss to Sri Lanka in Melbourne.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Ferguson now has the perfect opportunity to show his class and further apply the pressure to under-fire batsman Marcus North and Mike Hussey ahead of the Ashes series that begins on November 25.

Ferguson’s inclusion also appears to put him ahead of New South Wales batsman Usman Khawaja in the Ashes-selection pecking order.

“It’s an unfortunate injury for Shaun, which will see him miss the remainder of the series against Sri Lanka. However, it does create another opportunity for Callum Ferguson to come back into the Australian one-day team and press his claims,” said chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch.

“Callum has been in extremely good form of late for South Australia in interstate cricket and has a very good one-day international record for Australia, averaging 46 with the bat, so we know he can perform well on a big stage,” he added.

“Shaun Marsh injured his lower back in the latter part of his batting innings yesterday against Sri Lanka,” Cricket Australia physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said.

He added: “With the short turnaround between games in this series, it was decided that the best management of this injury is to withdraw him from the remaining two games to allow him time to recover. His return to cricket will be based on his recovery over the next few days.” (ANI)