Shaun Marsh says he’s disappointed at being axed from Australia’s Test squad but his focus now is on making more runs in white-ball cricket.
Shaun Marsh doesn’t know the answer to his two big questions.
Is his Test career finished?
And why can he make prolific runs in one-day cricket but not Tests?
“It’s a good question, isn’t it,” Marsh told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’m not too sure. My Test stuff over the last 12 months has been really disappointing.
“But I have just made a conscious effort to go out there in this (one-day) series to just free my mind.”
Marsh said refusing to dwell on his axing from the Test squad for the looming series against Sri Lanka had triggered his ODI run-scoring.
The left-hander struck his seventh ODI century in Australia’s six-wicket loss to India in Adelaide on Tuesday following a half-century in the series-opener.
Marsh was dumped from the Test team after averaging 26.14 in the four-Test series against India.
That followed meagre Test averages of 3.5 in the Pakistan series last October and 18.37 against South Africa last March.
Which raises the other question: aged 35, can he reclaim his Test spot?
‘I’m not too sure,” Marsh said.
“I have just got to focus on playing some really good white ball cricket now and we will see what happens.
“Obviously it was disappointing (to be dropped). But at the end of the day I just didn’t score enough runs – you’re there to score runs and I didn’t.
“So I tried to put it at the back of my mind and move on and just really focus on white ball and … it has been going well so I just need to try and continue that now.”
Marsh’s ton on Tuesday was his fourth century from his past eight one-dayers – he now has more limited-overs hundreds than his six Test centuries.
And his resilience to score ODI runs has won the admiration of Australian coach Justin Langer, who said being cut from the Test team “can shrivel up (people)”.
“But he hasn’t. He has stood tall,” Langer said.
“I’m really proud of Shaun … he’s a leader of our group, he’s a terrific person, he’s an ultra-professional now.
“He’s very much loved in the team so whenever he walks to wicket, whether it’s a red ball or a white ball, we just all want him to do well because he’s such a good person.”
© AAP
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