This is a very dark period for the Marsh family. Geoff Marsh was dumped as the Sri Lankan coach by the Sri Lankan cricket board and Mitch Marsh was ruled out of cricket for a period of eight weeks due to a back problem. But what about Shaun?
Of course, in my point of view, Shaun is a good batsman. He received his baggy green later because during his early 20s he used to be a party animal – drinking and partying with his mates most of the time and didn’t care much about cricket.
Gradually he understood that things had to change. So he ditched his party life and began thinking about his cricket career. He got known in the cricket world when he participated in the 2008 IPL. There he scored most runs in the tournament and received the orange cap.
He scored his first ODI century back in 2009 in Hyderabad. Then in 2011 when Punter went back home for the birth of his second child during the Sri Lanka Test series, Shaun was given the baggy green and there on his first day of Test cricket he got a ton!
Everyone was amazed and started to talk about him. It was a very special moment for him because his father was there watching him when he did grab his ton, as well as his girlfriend, Amanda Watson.
His baggy was presented to him by his father, which was a very special, unique moment in the cricket history.
After that he performed well until he got injured in a Test match while playing against South Africa. Later he recovered and played the first Test against India on Boxing Day. But despite all the above achievements, Marsh was out for ducks and struggled a lot to make runs during the series. He scored only 17 runs at an average of 2.67, including three ducks.
Then he was ruled out of one day series and was sent to play Shield cricket to gain his form. He joined the Warriors and scored 79 against Queensland Bulls. But that was all. He failed to make runs there, too. Recently he captained in the Ryobi Cup against NSW and scored only five runs.
He complained about the WACA pitch after the match but lot of people criticised him, saying that there was nothing wrong with the pitch and that it was only Marsh’s batting style. Considering the above facts, I feel that Marsh hasn’t got his form back just yet.
This will surely be a very tough period for Marsh. In my view, Marsh should play club cricket. Marsh will play for the IPL this year but I have a big question whether he’ll be able to succeed there because he even struggled in the recent T20 matches played against India, even though T20 is considered to be Marsh’s favourite kind of cricket.
Actually, I have no idea that where Marsh will go. But I know that he used to be a good cricketer, who plays strong, powerful shots. I do hope that he’ll get back to his form and shine again in the cricket world in all three forms of the game.
As he recently said, “The one thing I’m still lacking is converting starts to big scores. I feel as though I’ve improved there definitely, but I’ve got to get those big hundreds.”
All the best, Shaun.
Behold
Roar Rookie
His technique is very solid, he is suffering a little bit of off-stump syndrome; Like Michael Hussey did before last years Ashes series. If he knew exactly where off stump was he could leave the ball alone and work his way into innings, like he did in Sri Lanka and the first test in South Africa. A big off season would help him a lot of work on getting his core strong and maybe even staying out of the nets for a significant period of time. In saying that though if their is an Australia A tour he should definitely be part of it and perhaps even captain of it. The added responsibility might take some pressure of his batting. His battle is entirely mental and not knowing him, it is difficult diagnose the exact way to treat it.
Lolly
Guest
I think on grounds of injury alone, he should have to play a full season of Shield before being considered.
Pope Paul VII
Guest
At least the coach likes him. I'm still trying to fathom Khawaja's departure? Anyway, for better or worse, Australian batting will be almost unrecognisable in the next 18 mths to 2yrs if not sooner as Punter and Huss reluctantly leave the scene. Cowan and Warner are not yet established and Watto.....well Watto's Watto....anything could happen. So opportunities will abound.
Red Kev
Guest
His biggest problem is inconsistency, both in putting runs on the board and availability to play (not being a coach or even a good club-level batsman I am not going to talk about his technique as I don't have the expertise to evaluate it). The last two years (his best) have seen him play less than half the available domestic fixtures. If Shaun wants back in the baggy-green (and one assumes he does) then he needs to ditch the IPL and go play county cricket in England. Score runs, lots of them at first class level in both the Sheffield Shield and the County Championship.