Sydney, Oct 13 (IANS): Cricket Australia's National Selection Panel (NSP) Thursday announced that all-rounder Mitchell Marsh will replace the injured Brett Lee in the Australian squad for the One-day component of the team's tour of South Africa.
Lee has been ruled out of the Twenty20 and One-day Internationals (ODI) of the tour after being diagnosed with appendicitis. He underwent successful surgery in Cape Town Monday night and will return to Australia in due course.
NSP Chairman Andrew Hilditch said: "Due to the unfortunate illness to Brett Lee, the NSP has decided that Mitchell Marsh will replace Brett Lee in the one-day squad for the tour of South Africa.
"Mitchell is a very exciting young all-rounder who we consider has the ability to have a significant impact at international level.
"He played extremely well during the recent Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and is a pace bowler who has the ability to bat in the top six, providing great balance and flexibility to the squad.
"The One-day squad already has four specialist fast bowlers in Doug Bollinger, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Patrick Cummins so the NSP did not consider it necessary to replace Brett with a specialist fast bowler."
Australia are scheduled to play two T20 Internationals, three ODIs and two Tests in South Africa.