Mitch Marsh could be a white-ball star for Australia and should quit first-class cricket to focus on becoming an elite ODI and T20 player.
After 32 Tests, Marsh looks a long way from becoming a bona fide Test all-rounder, yet he is a highly valuable ODI cricketer and has major untapped potential as a T20 player.
In his comeback from injury on Saturday, Marsh smashed 56 not out from 22 balls in a man-of-the-match effort for the Perth Scorchers to remind us of his enormous talent.
Australia would have had a better chance of winning the 2019 World Cup with a fit Marsh in place of struggling all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and the Scorchers captain may yet make a run at next year’s T20 World Cup.
At 28 years old, he looks far more likely to make an impact at international level in white-ball cricket and should channel his energies accordingly – and not just because Marsh’s skill set is better suited to the shorter formats.
Marsh’s long history of injuries, together with the huge physical demands of being a pace-bowling all-rounder, mean that combining all three formats will grind his fragile body into the turf.
The increasingly specialised nature of T20 cricket is making it harder and harder for cricketers to be effective in all three formats.
In the decade to come there will be far fewer triple-format players. The reason the West Indies are such a powerhouse in T20 cricket despite being very weak for years in Tests is that many of their players are white-ball specialists.
Were Marsh to give up first-class cricket and concentrate only on limited-overs competitions he could become one of the world’s elite short-form all-rounders.
Aggression and hard hands have hampered him in Tests, where he has averaged just 25 with the bat in 55 innings despite playing as a batsman first and foremost.
Marsh has been given an enormous amount of Test opportunities and has been exposed again and again as being out of his depth.
Meanwhile, he remains Australia’s best ODI all-rounder and could be a key player in the next World Cup in just over three years from now.
(AP Photo/Andy Brownbill)
With Marcus Stoinis now dumped from the ODI set-up due to a long-form trough, Marsh is exactly the type of player Australia need – a savage middle-order ball-striker who is also a competent bowler. But the toll of being a three-format cricketer, and the regular injuries that have come with that, mean he hasn’t played an ODI for Australia in nearly two years.
In their three-match ODI series next month, Australia will use Ashton Agar in the same role Marsh and Stoinis filled in the past. Agar’s limited batting ability compared to Marsh will leave Australia with a long tail. They would look far better balanced with Marsh at six or seven, swapping between those two positions with Alex Carey depending on the match situation.
A major drawback of Stoinis as an ODI player is his consistently slow starts to innings, which is unacceptable for a middle-order batsman. On the other hand, Marsh has demonstrated the ability to explode from early in innings. In one of his most recent ODIs he came to the crease with just over ten overs left and destroyed a full-strength New Zealand attack, caning 76 not out from 40 balls, including seven sixes.
These are the sorts of devastating finishing knocks Australia need from their ODI all-rounder. Marsh has an excellent ODI record batting at six or lower, with an average of 37 and a strike rate of 98.
In T20Is, meanwhile, Marsh has had limited opportunities for Australia, playing just 11 matches spread across the past eight years. His BBL record is excellent, with 1151 runs at 40, and a strike rate of 126. But if he were to focus more on short-form cricket, he could become a far more dynamic T20 batsman.
With his ferocious striking ability on the back or front foot against both pace and spin, Marsh looks tailor-made for T20s. He underlined that on the weekend by obliterating a solid Melbourne Renegades attack. Marsh did that from number five in the order and he can build a bright future as a T20 wrecking ball in that position.
Australia have a glut of top-order T20 batsmen but too few cricketers who can dominate at five or six in the order. Marsh has the tools to become such a player. He could accelerate his development and enhance his ODI career by stepping away from red-ball cricket.
anon
Roar Pro
I’ve been through all your posts. You have avoided the question several times.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
I did explain. You just never read responses.
Graham
Roar Rookie
Australia seems intent on picking its test players on potential rather than actual performances. It hardly ever works out. Marsh's overall first class record is mediocre. How he managed to pay 32 tests for Australia is beyond me.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Works for Nicole Kidman
anon
Roar Pro
Don, you still haven't explained how you completed most of your uni assignments in between balls at the WACA? Cricket season is October to Marsh while uni is March to October.
Wigeye
Guest
Anon bang on you have alot more facts than me no ones talking the obvious too worried scared old boys club ,im a bc supporter in wa 20 odd year its same as the shambles in the wallaby camp all you heard about was the past wallaby greats but pretty much none of them spoke up about the real problems its called protecting your own,for the sake of australian rugby shame on them,. Hope the black caps at least give it a fair crack next two tests
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Jero's irony is exactly correct. Not playing Shield cricket just because you are not a fixture in the test side is just silly thinking. What was inane about Jero's comment? Perhaps you didn't understand.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
The Marshes have been out of the side for a long time. Are you not following the game? Neither has even played 40 tests. There's no special treatment there.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Why would he be dropped? He is captain and doing well.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
You only have to follow the cricket to see the trend. He has only played 2 red ball innings this season and one was a 50. His lowest score is 41...which was when he hurt his hand on getting out. That followed on his outstan dfing white ball form in the Marsh Cup. That's what we call form. You can deny it...as is your wont with Marsh...but it actually happened that way. I don't know why you feel so compelled to ignore Marsh's successes. It doesn't hurt you, surely. No cricketer is going to stop playing the sport he loves. There is not one good reason. Playing white ball cricket just as well as he already is is not that kind of reason.
Steele
Roar Rookie
You’ve cherry picked the one spot available. Wade changed from an all rounder himself of sorts. His first class record since he dropped the gloves dwarves Stokes overall batting record. Check out the last two shield seasons for proof of that. That is why he was picked. Pucovski, Maddinson, Usman and SMarsh all are better bats than Stokes. So no he would not get a game as a stand alone. He just wouldn’t be in the reckoning unless he started plundering 1000 county runs a season.
anon
Roar Pro
It's a disgrace that the worst number 6 in history is still in the mix to play Test cricket. In T20i he averages only 22 with the bat at 116. Only 6 wickets from 11 matches at 26. Maxwell in T20i is 35 with the bat at 160. 26 wickets at 27 with the ball. ODI cricket his stats aren't too bad. I have no real problem with him being in the ODI team. No-one has ever been given as big an armchair ride into the Test side as Mitch Marsh, but he still can't capitalise on all the chances he's been given. The fascination/obsession with this guy (and brother Shaun) I don't understand. What makes them more deserving of a spot in the team than other players with superior records? Maxwell got a century in India, but only ever played 7 Tests (none of them in Australia). Jo Burns had 4 centuries from 16 Tests yet Langer still insisted on cycling through and failing with Bancroft, Harris, Finch before throwing Burns a bone. Khawaja one of the best ODI players in the world 2019 and cruelly dumped from the ODI squad with no real explanation. Starc also one of the best bowlers in Test cricket in 2019 has been in and out of the side, dumped from the Test side after a 10 wicket haul against Sri Lanka. Incidentally, Starc only averages 2 LESS RUNS than golden child Marsh. Far superior bowler to Marsh obviously as well.
Wigeye
Guest
Couldnt agree more
Wigeye
Guest
Yep coming into its own.....until hes dropped again.cricketing family royalty.give and groom a couple 20 22 year olds from the state sides a chance
Izzy Nutz
Guest
And perhaps every poster here, who offers nothing but inanities like yours, could go away and never post again?
Izzy Nutz
Guest
And perhaps every poster here, who offers nothing but inanities like yours, could go away and never post again?
Tanmoy Kar
Roar Rookie
Hope Mitchell Marsh will read this Article!
DTM
Guest
It improved mine. Apparently, I was ordinary at best but now I tell everyone I was a superstar who had limited opportunities and a run of extraordinary bad luck! :)
Michael Keeffe
Roar Guru
Cmon Don! I'm happy to admit Mitch Marsh should be one of the first picked in our white ball teams. He's the best white ball allrounder in the country. But "His red ball form is coming into its own?" Surely you can admit a little bit of bias coming through there. His first class batting has been solid - averaged 35 last summer in shield cricket - without being spectacular, but he hasn't made a 50 in his last 14 test innings. He did take a 5 for in the Oval test but that was an anomaly not the norm. His test bowling record is underwhelming and he averaged over 40 with the ball in the shield last summer. If Mitch had some consistent shield form over a summer or two I'd be happy for him to be picked in our test team. Whether Mitch plays red ball cricket is up to him, I'd suggest he will want to and probably has the drive to still make the test team. He just needs to do it off performance not potential in the future.
DTM
Guest
"statistically there is no way Ben Stokes plays for Australia on his batting or bowling alone" Stokes v Wade is no contest as a number 5 when looking at statistics alone and ignoring Stokes bowling. Yes, he would be a walk up start at 5 or 6 as an all rounder but you would pick him as a batsman ahead of Wade. Both their career averages are modest (30 for Wade and 35 for Stokes). However, players are picked on form and it's fair to say that Wade has been doing ok. Looking at their last 10 test matches - Stokes 772 at 48 and wade 481 at 30.