“We believe that if called upon he will do an excellent job”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Western Australia all-rounder Hilton Cartwright has been called up to the Australia squad for the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan in Melbourne.

Cartwright’s inclusion in the team comes as a bit of a surprise as the national selectors overlooked fellow all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who was most recently part of the Test squad in the series against South Africa last month.

However, Cartwright has been on the selectors’ radar for some time now and was even called up for the recent three-match ODI series against New Zealand, but did not play a single game.

Nonetheless, the 24-year-old has been performing well in the ongoing Sheffield Shield season as he has scored 330 runs, which includes three half-centuries, in five matches at an average of 36.66.

Even though the has not been able to have as much of an impact with the ball as he has taken just four wickets, interim chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns admitted that the Test team is in need of a batting all-rounder, which is something Marsh has been unable to fulfill on a consistent basis.

“The bowlers got through a high workload in Brisbane and although everyone has pulled up okay, on reflection we wanted to give ourselves the option of including an all-rounder in Melbourne to ease that workload somewhat,” Hohns said. “To do that we wanted a batting all-rounder, someone to bowl seam-up and capable of batting in the top six as well, and after considering several names we came to the conclusion that Hilton fits that bill.

“We have seen plenty of him, he has performed well this season and we believe that if called upon he will do an excellent job.”