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Marsh added to Australia squad

Shaun Marsh has been called into Australia’s Test squad as cover for hamstrung captain Michael Clarke.

Marsh will link up with the 12-man squad in Adelaide, where the rescheduled four-Test series against India starts on Tuesday.

Clarke and his grief-stricken teammates attended Phillip Hughes’ funeral in Macksville on Wednesday and have started making their way to South Australia.

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Test squad players and their partners took a charter flight from nearby Coffs Harbour to Sydney on Thursday morning.

Clarke was a notable absentee from the flight.

Some of the Test players will land in Adelaide on Thursday afternoon with the rest of the team due to assemble on Friday, when they will train together.

It’s still not clear if any of the Australian squad will withdraw from the Test, with emotions still raw following Hughes’ death last week, but they have been promised that option by Cricket Australia.

“We hope the boys can find the inner strength to play the game in the way Phillip would have wanted in Adelaide next week and that they can honour what he had done,” coach Darren Lehmann wrote in a News Corp Australia column printed on Thursday.

“It’s going to be hard and if somebody is struggling Michael and I understand. There is no pressure on them.

“We will look after them and we will help them get back to the place where they can play.”

Hughes and Marsh were the leading candidates to replace Clarke last month, when the 33-year-old skipper was set to be ruled out of the first Test in Brisbane while recovering from a third hamstring setback since August.

The two were in action for their respective states on November 25.

Marsh brought up a century with three sixes off Victoria legspinner Fawad Ahmed at the MCG, but like all cricketers was in a state of shock.

Hughes had been struck by a bouncer at the SCG and rushed to hospital for emergency brain surgery.

Hughes’ life support was switched off two days later.

“I know you are not supposed to have favourites as coaches, but he was certainly one of mine and I think all the staff felt the same,” Lehmann wrote.

“His desire to get back into the side was second to none.

“The way he was going at the SCG on that fateful day was a fair indication he was on his way back into the Australian team.

“He was going to be a long-term Test player.

“I have no doubts he could have played 100 Tests because he had learnt so much on the way.”

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