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Shaun Marsh is a lock in the Australian Test team: Here's why

30th November, 2016
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Shaun Marsh's performance in the Indian Tests left a lot to be desired. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
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30th November, 2016
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It took years for me to warm up to Shaun Marsh as a Test player. Maybe my expectations were too high.

I was in a unique position to witness the extraordinary skills of the West Australian batsman as they developed.

As a kid, Marsh played for Willetton in the South Metropolitan Cricket Association. I was a leg spinner for Kelmscott, one of Willetton’s rivals.

From the ages of 10 to 15 I played against Marsh at least half a dozen times. Never once did I take his wicket. Never once did my team dismiss him. Never once did he do anything other than flay our attack with the utmost ease.

My teammates and I would sit around after our games against Willetton and talk about Marsh as if he were the lead character of an action movie. He didn’t seem human.

How can someone be that good? Has he lost his wicket, ever? Does his bat possess magic? Even at that age there was no doubt he would play for Australia.

“He’ll probably be as good as Steve Waugh”, my mate said. “He might be that good now,” I replied, not entirely in jest.

Not long after he finished embarrassing me and my teammates Marsh made his professional debut aged just 17 and Waugh was an opponent when he struck his debut first-class ton in 2003.

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That century came against a supreme New South Wales attack that included Stuart MacGill, Stuart Clark and Doug Bollinger. At that stage Marsh was, to my mind, the most gifted young batsman in the country, even better than Michael Clarke, who would the following year spank an extraordinary 151 on Test debut in India.

Yet it took 11 years of first-class cricket for Marsh to finally earn a Test cap. By that stage he was 28 years old and had a first-class batting average in the mid-30s, at least ten runs too low for a batsman of his extravagant gifts.

His first four innings in Test cricket included three gems. He struck 141 on debut against Sri Lanka in Pallekele followed by 81 in his next knock at Colombo. Then he made a dogged 44 against a white-hot South African attack which had reduced Australia to 3-40 on a spicy Newlands deck in the Test in which the Proteas were dismissed for 97 and Australia were all out for just 47.

Like most Australians fans at the time I was massively impressed by Marsh and was pencilling him in to be a cornerstone of the Test line-up for the following five or six years. Then it all fell apart. Marsh’s next seven Test innings were 0, 0, 3, 0, 11, 3, 0.

He was promptly sent back to play for the Western Warriors. Marsh continued to under-perform at domestic level and I lost all faith in the elegant left hander.

I was shocked and annoyed when he was picked in the Test team in South Africa in 2014, despite having averaged just 21 in first-class cricket since the start of the 2011-12 summer. It was Marsh’s inconsistency which wore me down and which ensured there were few Australian fans who had confidence in his ability.

Finally, over the past two years, Marsh seems to have peaked as a cricketer. In that time, he has cracked 832 runs at an average of 46 from his ten Tests, and made 1405 runs at 59 in the Sheffield Shield. Most importantly, he looked at ease against spin in Sri Lanka while the rest of the team crumbled.

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Australian batsman Shaun Marsh reacts after scoring a century

While his batting colleagues variously looked panicked or impatient or bamboozled, Marsh batted with calm and confidence against Rangana Herath and co. It was no fluke. In his three Tests in Asia, Marsh has piled up 393 runs at an average of 79, including two wonderful tons.

He would be just about my first batsman picked for the upcoming four-Test series of India. It would be bold to leave him out of that tour and I don’t think the selectors will.

So he needs to come straight back into the team against Pakistan or he will be left with very little red ball batting before India.

Former Australian opener Michael Slater argued that 20-year-old opener Matt Renshaw should give way for Marsh, who had been opening the batting in Tests when he got injured.

I think Renshaw showed tremendous grit and promise on debut last week and should be retained with Marsh to instead replace flashy middle order batsman Nic Maddinson.

The New South Welshman was extremely lucky to be picked for Australia, as I argued last week, Maddinson did not force his way into the team through weight of runs, instead he was picked on potential, just as Marsh was for years. Now Marsh has form behind him which cannot be ignored.

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A versatile cricketer who has batted anywhere from one to six in the order for WA, Marsh should slot in at five for the first Test against Pakistan.

My team for the first Test against Pakistan
1. David Warner
2. Matt Renshaw
3. Usman Khawaja
4. Steve Smith
5. Shaun Marsh
6. Peter Handscomb
7. Matthew Wade
8. Mitchell Starc
9. Josh Hazlewood
10. Nathan Lyon
11. Jackson Bird

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