Aussies sweat on Johnson

Published: 6:52AM Wednesday October 28, 2009 Source: AAP

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Australia will wait until shortly before the toss to decide whether to play pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson in the second limited overs match against India at Nagpur.

Johnson had originally been ruled out of contention for the match but trained surprisingly well on match-eve to prove he was on the way to recovering from the minor ankle strain he picked up in game one.

Fellow quick Brett Lee (elbow) and allrounder James Hopes (hamstring) are already out, with NSW youngster Moises Henriques en route to join the squad in time for the third match of the series in Delhi.

Australian coach Tim Nielsen said Johnson's presence was critical to the balance of the team, given his ability to make a telling contribution with bat as well as ball.

"The pressure on all our batsmen is a bit more extreme, we need to make sure the top seven or eight do the majority of the work," Nielsen said of a team that may feature three contenders for No. 11 in Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger.

"Mitchell is pretty important for us because that changes the whole balance of our side."

The day/night timing of the match will give Johnson some extra time to rest and recover from his training/fitness test on Wednesday.

Batsman Shaun Marsh will play his first match for Australia since re-tearing a hamstring against Pakistan in Dubai in April.

India: MS Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Tim Paine, Shane Watson, Michael Hussey, Adam Voges, Cameron White, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Jon Holland, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger.

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