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It’s an interesting question, was it skipper Steve Smith wanting to shore up his highly successful four-man attack, or was it the selectors as they continue their fruitless search for another Keith Miller or Doug Walters?
It would be unfair to Mitchell Marsh to reach a conclusion after only one day of the third Ashes Test at the WACA, his home ground, but so far he’s way behind the eight-ball.
He dropped a regulation first slip chance offered by Mark Storeman on 52 off Josh Hazlewood. The drop didn’t cost too much as the England opening batsman was dismissed for 56.
And he didn’t bowl until late, finishing the day with seven overs in two spells. He conceded 25 runs off some pretty ordinary bowling.
That’s understandable when he’s only bowled 22 Sheffield Shield overs in taking 2-95 after a nine-month break following shoulder surgery.
(AAP Image/David Mariuz)
Just seven overs yesterday when Mitchell Starc bowled 19, Hazlewood 20, Pat Cummins 21, and Nathan Lyon 19.
On what basis was he considered worthy of dumping Peter Handscomb for this Test that could decide the Ashes?
Smith didn’t rate Marsh highly enough on a day dominated by England’s batsmen, finishing on a series high 4-305 with Dawid Malan notching his maiden Test ton, unbeaten on 110. Jonny Bairstow scored 75, the two combining in an unbroken 174-run fifth wicket stand.
That England had such a good day when their two best and most experienced batsmen Joe Root (20), and Alastair Cook (7), could only manage 27 between them on a belter of a track, said volumes for the relative newcomers.
It was clearly England’s day, with the usually reliable Lyon dropping a diving forward catch, Cameron Bancroft spilling Malan in the 90s when falling to his right blocking Smith who had the chance covered to his left.
David Warner also missed a run out chance he would convert eight times out of ten.
That’s far too many negatives for a side that won the first two Tests by ten wickets, and 120 runs.
(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Finally, there are two facets of Test match cricket I’d like to see changed.
Scorers have come a long way since the early days when runs were carved into a stick – quite literally ‘notching’ runs.
More often than not, current scorers keep tabs on dot balls that don’t tell the true story.
If scorers broke dot balls into two categories – playing a shot but not scoring, and letting the ball pass without a shot – both bowlers and batsmen would be accurately shown in the scorebook.
The second change would cover two wild bouncers that soared over both the heads of the batsman, and Australian keeper Tim Paine, to cannon into the ropes.
Those eight runs were scored as byes, which was an injustice to Paine, and didn’t tell the true story.
They should have been scored as eight wides, which was categorically correct, with extra deliveries bowled.