Mitch Marsh has pre-earned a spot in the Australian Test team for this year’s Ashes series after a massive week in the nets.
The bowling all-rounder was dropped from the Test side in December after a string of underwhelming performances with both bat and ball in the five-day format.
His inability to hit the ball off the square led to his unceremonious axing during the South Africa Test series.
Thankfully for Marsh, selectors noticed his eye-catching form in the nets and made the unprecedented decision to select him for the Ashes series that starts in November.
“It’s a huge honour to name Mitchell Marsh as the first player selected in our quest to regain the Ashes’, interim Chairman of Selectors, Trevor Hohns said.
“I appreciate that it’s highly unusual to pick a player so far out from a series, and I’m sure the public have their questions, but man, you should’ve seen how well he’s been hitting them in the nets lately! It was a no-brainer.”
Two impressive net sessions with the Perth Scorchers last week have put the younger Marsh brother squarely back in the selectors’ good graces, even without a Marsh currently sitting on the panel.
Selector Mark Waugh, who was present at one of the practices, said that his ability to split the gap between imaginary fielders was “uncanny” – second only to his ability to find real fielders on the full in crucial moments of actual Test matches.
When a reporter asked Hohns how the board could continue to select a player with a batting average of 23 and bowling average of 37, he bristled.
“Look, Mitchell is a confidence player – if we show him that he has our complete, undying confidence no matter how little he contributes to the team on game day, then it naturally follows that he will play well next time. It’s Selecting 101 mate.”
Despite only taking five wickets in his past five Tests, it’s also believed his ability to take wickets was a crucial reason behind his selection.
Waugh said even though he hasn’t been taking wickets, “(Marsh) told me ‘they felt like they’d been coming out really nicely lately’, so that’s massive for him.”
“He’d come in and bowl, the batsmen would smash it into the nets but Mitch repeatedly kept saying ‘that’s gone mate, definitely would have been caught’, he was taking so many imaginary wickets – I’d never seen anything like it!”
His brother Shaun is expected to be the next player named in the Ashes lineup.
After controversially invoking the ‘can’t get out first ball’ rule, Shaun went on to score an impressive half-century in the Marsh backyard at Christmas before running himself out on 99.
Controversial columnist and fellow ‘not good cricketer’ Brett Geeves is believed to be in the process of penning an explosive expose on the Marsh issue for publication later this week.
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