Shaun Marsh ruled out of 2nd Test against South Africa

Australian opener Shaun Marsh has been ruled out of the second Test against South Africa, to be played in Hobart from November 12, due to a broken finger. Joe Burns and Callum Ferguson have been added to the squad.

The injury setback has come on the day when South Africa drew first blood and retained their unbeaten run at the WACA in Perth with a 177-run victory in the first of the three-match Test series, squarely putting the pressure on the hosts to bounce back in a short span of time.

"He's (Marsh) been playing very well, at the moment he's pretty shattered. Hopefully, the surgery goes well and he returns soon," Steven Smith, the Australia skipper, said.

Marsh had returned to the Test side for the first time since December 2015 on Burns's expense in the final fixture against Sri Lanka this August and scored an eye-catching 130 in the first innings in Colombo. Despite a finger injury cutting his limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka short and ruling him out of the tour of South Africa, he regained fitness on time to be picked ahead of Burns for the first Test of the home season.

Marsh began brightly with a 63 in a 158-run opening stand with David Warner in the first innings, but a similar injury to the same finger has now ruled him out of the Hobart game. Burns, who has three centuries in 12 Tests so far, has been drafted into the squad as a potential like-for-like replacement. The Queenslander also scored a century in the opening match of the Sheffield Shield against a potent New South Wales bowling attack to further his credentials.

Ferguson, who has 30 One-Day Internationals to his name, also scored a century in the Shield game for South Australia against Western Australia at the WACA last week.

Australia Squad for Hobart Test: David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith (capt), Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Callum Ferguson, Peter Nevill (wk), Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Siddle, Joe Mennie, Nathan Lyon.