Australia's selectors have summoned Martin Love as a possible replacement for the injured Darren Lehmann ahead of the Boxing Day Test that starts in Melbourne on Thursday. Lehmann was admitted to hospital with an infection in his right leg. Dr Trefor James, the Australian team's medical officer, said Lehmann - who scored 119 off 123 balls in a one-day international against Sri Lanka at Perth last Sunday - will receive a course of intravenous antibiotics and could be discharged on Christmas Day, depending on his progress. Love, a standout performer for Queensland over the past few seasons, currently tops the first-class runs list with 781 at an average of 130.16. That tally includes innings of 250 (for Queensland) and 201 (for Australia A) against England, in addition to 190 against Tasmania.

It's the first time that Love has been called up to the senior squad and he was more than pleasantly surprised by it. "Trevor Hohns [the chairman of selectors] called just when I was having breakfast and trying to organise our plans for Christmas Day," Love said. "It's always something you do on Boxing Day … after having a big Christmas Day, you generally sit down and watch the Test when you're recovering, so it will certainly be a different view on things now that I'm actually part of it. I happen to be in form at the moment, I scored 190 against Tasmania last week so that's the way I'm seeing it, it's just an opportunity at this stage to play one game. If Darren's fit then I've had that endorsement from the selectors that I was next in line so we'll just wait and see what happens over the next couple of days."

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