Australia vs India 2018: Marcus Handscomb Confident of Making a Comeback

Dropped Australian batsman Peter Handscomb has vouched to come back stronger after all-rounder Mitchel Marsh replaced him following his poor scores in the opening two Test. Handscomb aggregated only 68 runs from four innings at Adelaide and Perth.

Meanwhile, he made a strong comeback with a match-winning 70 off 35 for the Melbourne Stars in a Big Bash League 2018-19 match against Sydney Sixers. Speaking after the game, Peter Handscomb admitted that he would work hard at the nets to regain his spot in the team. He also added that team balance was of more critical going into the Boxing Day Test.

“To come back in the side off the back of one T20 hit is a tough call, but I’ll put my hand up and work my arse off in the nets and hopefully something comes of it. Team balance was a big thing for the squad and we’ve seen we really needed Mitch Marsh to bowl those overs. So, it was an important change and that’s perfectly fine,” Handscomb said.

“It’s going to be a tough call on their (the selectors) behalf,” he said. “Mitch Marsh is probably going to have to play if it (the SCG pitch) is flat and spinning, we’re going to need another bowler. And the other batters are batting really well,” he added.

In his quest to make a comeback, Handscomb said that he’s working closely with Australia coach Justin Langer and batting coach Graeme Hick.

“I’ve gone about trying to tinker with a couple of things, working with ‘JL’ (Justin Langer), working with ‘Hickey’ (batting coach Graeme Hick), having some good conversations about what we think needs to be done to score runs,” he concluded.