Australia’s white-ball captain Mitchell Marsh will retire from the Sheffield Shield at the end of the ongoing season. This makes it clear that the all-rounder has played his final first-class match for Western Australia, however, he has kept a door ajar to play for Australia in Test cricket. But then, without playing domestic cricket, will Marsh be picked in the Test team?
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald had earlier stated that they would be keen on picking Marsh for Tests without him playing red-ball cricket. “We would be comfortable picking someone, and if you want to put a name to it, Mitch Marsh, out of white-ball cricket, if we felt like that was going to benefit the Test team. He’s the captain of the white-ball team. It’s very hard for him to vacate [that] and balance out Test preparation, if he was to be in the window for that. We still haven’t given up on Mitch Marsh’s Test career,” McDonald said before the Ashes started.
Having said that, Australia are leading 2-0 in the Ashes, with Cameron Green performing fine on his comeback from injury while Beau Webster is already warming the bench.
Coming back to first-class cricket, Marsh returned to play Shield cricket for Western Australia after a long time last week against Victoria at the MCG and scored only 13 runs across two innings.
Honour to play Sheffield Shield for WA, says Marsh
“It has been an honour to play Sheffield Shield cricket for WA. Right now I am deeply committed to the group and the [Perth] Scorchers. Playing for WA has been a huge part of my life and I plan to give back in any way possible long into the future,” Marsh said in a statement. “The Australian white-ball captain remains open to the prospect of playing Test cricket,” the final part of the WACA statement read, which confirmed that Marsh kept the door open to play for Australia in Test cricket.
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