Marsh welcomes first child, ready for added bowling load

Amid intense scrutiny on Rohit Sharma's availability for the Perth Test due to the birth of his second child, Mitch Marsh will enjoy the luxury of becoming a father and playing his home Test in the space of a week.

Marsh's wife Greta gave birth to their first child, a daughter who Mitch said they have yet to name, on Sunday night in the Western Australian capital where the couple lives.

That comes as reports emerged that India captain Rohit will miss the first Test at Optus Stadium as he remains in Mumbai. The BCCI is yet to confirm whether their Test skipper and star opener will travel to Perth for the series opener beginning Friday.

Australia will be grateful they are not facing a similar call given they are already one allrounder down in Cameron Green, who is out for the summer after undergoing surgery on his back.

Hours after Marsh’s daughter's arrival, the 32-year-old was at Australia's first training session ahead the India series at the WACA Ground on Monday morning.

The right-armer had a lengthy bowl to fellow middle-order players Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne as he attempts to steel himself for an expected uptick in overs in the absence of Green.

Marsh did not bowl in either of the Sheffield Shield matches he played for Western Australia in October, but that is certain to change for the five-Test series against India.

“The reality is he’s our allrounder and he’s going to need to be bowling,” spinner Nathan Lyon said on Monday.

Since leaving the Indian Premier League with a torn hamstring in April, Marsh has only sent down four overs in competitive cricket.

He played as a batter only during the T20 World Cup he captained in the Caribbean and only brought himself on for a brief spell during the penultimate match of the recent UK limited-overs tour in September.

Since Green joined him in the Test side, Marsh has generally been relegated to the fifth-choice seamer. He has averaged almost 50 with the ball since his return last year, but has proved handy on seaming wickets.

Speaking to 3AW on Monday, Marsh joked his time as a specialist batter has been "beautiful" but insisted he was ready for the added responsibly against India.

"I've been really well looked after," he said.

"I've had a real luxury of having Cameron Green in the side over the last little period of time. Once we knew that he was out, it was all about building towards this first Test match.

"Really confident that I've put in enough work to be able to bowl. Over the last few years, the allrounder hasn't bowled a hell of a lot.

"But I think it's just being ready to go, and being available for when (captain) Patty (Cummins) needs and when the boys need a bit of a chop out.

"I also just love competing with the ball and trying to make something happen. So I'm ready to go."

Marsh had been touted by some pundits as a possible opener for the Test side before selectors settled on Nathan McSweeney, though the Western Australian who has never opened against the red ball insisted that was never likely to transpire.

"I've loved the role of batting at number six certainly since I've come back into the test team, I've really found … who I am as a Test cricketer," he said.

"Batting number six, you find yourself in a lot of different situations. I've loved it. It allows me to play my attacking game and trying to get the game moving forward.

"There was a bit of talk about opening – I squashed that pretty quickly behind the scenes, and even offered to bat at number eight one at one point!

"But that got shut down as well."

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: November 22-26: Perth Stadium, 1.20pm AEDT

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed