Returning Mitch Marsh challenged to be Australia's Ben Stokes ahead of fifth Ashes Test

NICK HOWSON AT THE OVAL: The 27-year-old allrounder is set to face England this week after being dropped during the summer. And his team have major expectations

Australia hope Mitchell Marsh can be their very own Ben Stokes after including the allrounder in their squad for the fifth Ashes Test against England at The Oval.

The 27-year-old is in contention for his first competitive outing of the tour and has replaced Travis Head in the 12-man squad as the tourists attempt to win their first series in England for 18 years.

In 31 Tests, Marsh has scored 1,219 runs and taken 35 wickets. His last Test outing came against India in the Boxing Day Test when scores of nine and 10 alongside combined bowling figures of 0-51 saw him dropped for following game in Sydney.

With the urn retained with a Test to play, Australia have coped well without a genuine allrounder but captain Tim Paine is optimistic the Perth native can fill that role and that he has all the tools to mirror the displays of England's talisman.

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"Mitch has worked is backside off for the last even months," he said. "He got some pretty honest feedback when he was dropped in the India series about where he was physically and his cricket. 

"He had a choice to make to either sulk about it or to do something about it. Mitch at the moment is at fit at the moment as we've seen him.

"During this Ashes watching Ben Stokes go about it, we've constantly spoken to him about him being at that sort of level of fitness where you can bowl 25-30 overs and then come out and score a hundred. 

^{The fifth Test comes at the end of a gruelling tour for Australia}

"That is something Mitch has watched up close and he's aspiring to. Certainly, when he's fitter he goes to another level. When you're a boy the size he is it's hard to run in all day, and you're carrying a few extra kilos. 

"He's done well to work them off and he's worked very hard on his cricket. We're looking forward to him putting all that hard work into action this week."

Stokes has scored 354 runs and taken eight wickets in the opening four Tests, but will not bowl extensively at The Oval due to a shoulder complaint.

Australia have had the luxury of rotating their bowling attack throughout the series. Pat Cummins is the only seamer to go unchanged throughout the summer, in addition to having played throughout the World Cup.

^{Pat Cummins is in line to feature again having been unchanged during the series}

Peter Siddle could yet be recalled for The Oval but Paine is confident his side will deal with the additional physical demands placed upon them this week.

"We have spoken about how we deal with that and if you see your mate being a bit tired it is about going over and picking him up," he added.

"We've had that sort of squad mentality the whole way through. We knew guys were going to tire. But we'e had the mentality that we're going to push through it, help each other out.

"Our quicks have bowled a lot of overs and it is hard work so they haven't trained as much as the series has gone on. We have lots of resources, everyone is well prepared and everyone who takes the field tomorrow will be 100% ready to go."