Mitchell Marsh’s unhappy set of scores against India meant he had to go. But some commentary on The Roar and elsewhere has poured vitriol towards Marsh (or selectors) because of the fact he was in the team in the first place.
It seems as if we were talking about the Mitch Marsh of 2013-19 who promised but never delivered in the batting all-rounder spot. And copped a lot of hate, partly because he often had a brother in the team who didn’t get the scores that the fans wanted.
Memories can be short. Mitch Marsh earned his place in the team following his comeback in the Headingly Test in July 2023. He scored 118 in that match to put his team in a fighting position, even though they lost.
From Headingly up to the last Test before this season (in New Zealand in March), Marsh scored more runs and had a higher average than anyone else in the team – 47, scoring one century and six fifties in ten Tests. Of the players available at the beginning of the India series, the next best were Khawaja (34) and Smith (33).
Apart from having a better record than the rest of the team over the previous 17 months, we should remember what Marsh did in that previous Test in New Zealand. He scored 80 off 102 balls in the second innings, coming in at 4/34. Alongside Carey’s 98 not out, this helped win the Test and the series (and WTC points) chasing down a difficult target of 279.
Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith. (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
And give Marsh credit for his catching this series: a blinder to catch Shubman Gill in Brisbane, plus three other excellent catches In Brisbane and Melbourne.
You don’t keep someone in the team because of his catching. If Webster drops one, how can we assess the relevant impact of catches and drops? Impossible to put numbers on it, especially one match, but it seems topical given that catching was arguably the biggest difference between the two sides at the MCG.
Marsh of course was on a bit of a hiding to nothing given his previous stint in the Test team. This despite the fact that his teammates greatly value his presence, and in opposite degree to many Australian fans. Imagine him feeling he was the most hated cricketer (or person?) in Australia, just for doing his best and not succeeding.
Hard to believe anyone felt worse about it than him. If he was unpleasant or a bad sport we might understand, but….
It’s probably a good time for Marsh to be moving on for another reason – the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka, vital for WTC qualification. Asian wickets – India, Sri Lanka and UAE – were Marsh’s biggest Achilles heel in his first stints in the Test team, averaging only 22 across nine Tests.
I’m not sure if he’s improved much. A fair bit of white-ball cricket in India might have helped but he hasn’t played on spinning Test pitches since his return in 2023.
The fact we still look at Marsh’s record from pre-2020 raises an interesting point. Was his 2023-24 return a real improvement, or just a lucky run before a return to the long term trend?
Hard to know. I looked hard to work out whether he was doing anything particularly wrong to get out for low scores against India, compared to his teammates. He played only one poor shot to get out – a misjudged pull in the first innings in Melbourne.
Once each in Perth and Melbourne and twice in Brisbane he got out to balls that seamed away and took the edge. He seemed to be playing well defensively, not overcommitting on the front foot, playing the ball under the eyes. The one that Bumrah got him with on the back foot in the second innings in Melbourne was a pearler – I don’t see anyone on either team playing it any better.
Marsh got out caught behind to a straight one from Ashwin in Adelaide that he didn’t snick – even though he walked! That’s a worry in itself. And perhaps confirmation of doubts about his chances against spin.
But overall, I came to the conclusion that his bad run in these India Tests was mostly down to getting some very good balls that just did enough while others on both sides were playing and missing – for example, Travis Head in Adelaide playing and missing about 13 times and getting dropped twice.
Marsh is a bit of a similar batsman – attacking but hit and miss. He needed to go on with bigger scores when he did get a start, like his 47 in Perth, to cement his place. So maybe a bit unlucky, but not so surprising given the past?
Looking at Marsh’s trajectory should also give us pause in considering Webster’s prospects. He has had one brilliant Shield season last year, followed by some very consistent good form this season and three good or decent scores against a handy India A attack.
But prior to 2023-24, aged 29, he was nowhere in the conversation, averaging 32 with the bat and 42 with the ball in first class cricket. (Marsh over that same period of eight seasons, including Tests, got 36 with the bat and 33 with the ball.)
So will Beau’s recent form be some kind of blip, a bit of a lucky run? Hopefully not. Such a sustained performance over two and a half seasons (52 with bat, 32 with ball) suggests he could be one of those players who have finally found their feet in their late twenties and can establish themselves at Test level.
It can’t be luck to manage 900-plus runs and 30 wickets in a Sheffield Shield season in the footsteps of Garfield Sobers, even if the attacks Sobers faced in that 1963-64 season featured a lot more Test bowlers playing most games – including the likes of Davidson, McKenzie, Benaud, Connolly, Veivers, Corling and Tony Lock.
Sobers not only topped the runs table (973 at 75) but was also the leading wicket taker (47 at 28). And again for those worrying that Bumrah (230 overs since September in all cricket) or Starc (182) have been “bowled into the ground” – Sobers bowled the equivalent of 505 six ball overs, in addition to facing a couple of thousand balls in the middle (Sobers opened the bowling the whole season).
Two-hundred and thirty overs by New Year’s Day was not particularly high in Australian seasons in the 20th century for either Australian Test players or tourists.
But vale Mitch. May you continue to enjoy success for Australia in the white-ball game.
