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A problem all round with only one answer

Is Mitch Marsh worth a gamble? (AAP Image/David Mariuz)
Expert
8th March, 2017
15

I know why teams do it and I know why teams want to do it. On the evidence of the past fortnight, I’ve got no idea why they’re doing it. Fancy taking a guess?

Yes, it’s the all-rounder position in the Australian team which is currently being occupied in body by Mitchell Marsh but not, by any stretch of the imagination, in soul.

When you don’t contribute with the bat and bowl next to no overs, you’re playing as a fielder and – let’s be frank here – the younger of the Marsh brothers is no Jonty Rhodes.

Actually, this is doing Rhodes a bit of a disservice, because he was a far better batsman than he was given credit for, but you catch my drift.

Not so long ago, I questioned Marsh’s inclusion in the Test XI and unless something is different, which it isn’t, that view hasn’t changed.

You don’t bat, you don’t bowl, what do you do?

A rhetorical question as Marsh isn’t a bad cricketer but he is badly out of place as things stand.

Australian cricketer Mitch Marsh

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Harking back to the opening sentence, the answers are pretty obvious.

Australia, or any team for that matter, generally want to play five bowlers in Test matches. Spreading the load, offering variation, covering all bases, it’s a sound way of thinking.

In hot conditions, on pitches that don’t offer a great deal, this is far from daft but it is a luxury Australia don’t need.

The pitches are offering something – a bit too much probably – and the quartet of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe are doing just fine. That’s all there is to it.

Marsh’s output with the ball in two matches has been five measly overs, which isn’t a problem if the other supposed string to the bow is in fine fettle. Yet 48 runs in four attempts says it isn’t and when one isn’t the other most definitely has to be. A pair of crosses on the charge sheet means the place on the team sheet is nigh on untenable.

At a push, Marsh is a decent fourth seamer in a Test side – 29 wickets at 37.48 is not too shabby – but he is nowhere near a number six – 674 runs at 21.74 is very shabby. He wasn’t when he made his debut and he isn’t 21 appearances later.

Fifty-over and Twenty20 cricket yes, five-day cricket no, and eventually something has to give. On the back of a demoralising defeat, where the very weakest link was all too apparent, is as good a time as any. Well, you would like to think so anyway.

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So where now then?

Defeat, almost in every single case, leads to calls for all and sundry to be replaced or banished into the ether but enough has been shown by the tourists to render all such talk as merely overreaction.

They could do with David Warner scoring a few more and Matthew Wade justifying his inclusion but they won the first Test handsomely and had more than their fair share of moments in the second.

To succumb to panicked selections is to hand a fillip to the opposition which they don’t really warrant and an admittance you are having doubts.

Australia need to remain calm, remember the scoreline is far from unfavourable and that, from very recent history if nothing else, India are far from invincible.

But if any lesson is to be learnt then, when battle recommences in Ranchi in just over a week, the top six should, and needs, to consist of exactly that.

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