Victorian coach perplexed by Handscomb’s axing

But McDonald conceded he was unsure about the level of fatigue sustained by Australia’s three-pronged pace attack after two out of the five Tests.

All-rounder Mitch Marsh replaced Handscomb, with his call-up designed to help manage the workloads of quicks Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.

But McDonald said sizzling spinner Nathan Lyon was cap- able of locking down one end.

Marsh delivered nine overs out of 115.1 in England’s first innings, finishing with 0-43.

But McDonald said those attacking Handscomb’s unorthodox technique were too one-dimensional, lauding him as a future leader of Australia.

Handscomb’s expedited climb into the Test team last summer short-circuited Melbourne Stars’ plans to groom him as their next Big Bash League captain.

It emerged last night that Handscomb, 26, was likely to stay in the Australian camp for the entire Ashes series.

If Cricket Australia holds on to Handscomb, the Stars could look to replace him on their roster for the first half of the season, perhaps with young spinner Liam Bowe.

“I was disappointed that a good, young batter averaging 47, and who has been to the subcontinent, did get left out,” McDonald said yesterday.

“They may have made a management decision, which would suggest that Petey comes straight back in for the Boxing Day Test match. That’s going to be the test, isn’t it? Have they dropped him as a one-off and are then going to bring him back for Melbourne?

“That would be great and would make a lot of sense. But if he gets left out of Melbourne, then they’ve dropped him for other reasons.

“I’ve always said technique is something that’s repeatable to each individual, and everyone’s got their own technique.”

Handscomb scored 14, 36 and 12 in his three Ashes knocks as Australia shot to a 2-0 series lead.