Australia are set to fight the Bazball blitz by making the surprise decision to recall Mitchell Marsh to the Test team in the Ashes series.
The selectors are considering adding Marsh to the squad to potentially deliver a knockout blow to the England side after the Aussies seized the early momentum by thrashing Ben Stokes’ team within two days at Perth last week.
They will name their squad later this week for the second Test in Brisbane, which gets under way next Friday, and Marsh has zoomed into calculations, according to Nine report.
The selectors’ interest in Marsh could spell bad news for Usman Khawaja as it may mean Travis Head will be shifted permanently to opener at the expense of the veteran Queenslander.
That would create a spot in the middle order for Marsh, fellow allrounder Beau Webster or reserve batter Josh Inglis to get a start.
Another option could be for Marsh to suit up for Western Australia for the first time since early last summer to get a Sheffield Shield match under his belt before being used later in the Ashes series.
WA travel east to take on Victoria next Thursday at the MCG which would give Marsh a red-ball hit-out before the third Test in Adelaide on December 17.
He came into the 2023 Ashes for the third Test and belted a memorable ton at Leeds to rescue Australia from a precarious position at 4-85.
The wildcard solution could be to allow Marsh to open for the Test team.
Former Australia captain Greg Chappell was advocating for Marsh to be handed the role prior to the start of the series, along with ex-England skipper Michael Vaughan after his explosive efforts at the top of the order in the white-ball formats.
Australia have an embarrassment of riches with Pat Cummins a strong chance to make an early return from a back injury and fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood hopeful of being able to get back later in the series from his hamstring complaint.
England are searching for answers and Ian Botham has called on Ben Stokes and Joe Root to stand up to be counted at the Gabba or they can forget about regaining the Ashes.
“To be one of the very best you need to win in Australia, 100 per cent,” he told the PA news agency.
Mitchell Marsh. (Photo by Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images)
“People remember you for what you’ve done over here. In Joe and Ben we’ve got two world-class players – Joe’s got 39 hundreds for goodness sake – but they are desperate to make an impression here. You can only do that by winning. They need to get the monkey off their back.
“They are the two who will want this the most because a lot of the others will get another bite at the cherry. I can tell you from experience, winning over here feels really, really good and it means absolute respect.
“I don’t have a favourite time because every time you beat Australia is a great day. That alone should be driving England.”
Botham didn’t hold back when asked for his thoughts on their first Test capitulation.
“It was horrendous, there’s no other word for it,” he said.
“England need to fire up and fire up quickly. I’m fed up of hearing, ‘this is the way we play’. If I hear it once more, I think I’ll throw something at the television.
“If that’s the way you play, you might as well go home now because it’s going to be 5-0. They probably won’t like me saying that but they need to get their heads around it. I want more pride when I see people pulling that sweater on.”
He added that England needed to rein in their hell-for-leather attacking approach.
“Maybe we need to rethink our tactics. You’re not going to smash these Australian bowlers around all the time,” he said.
“Be selective, be sensible. Pull your horns in a little bit. When I did it I got myself in first. They’ve got four more Tests to get it right and let’s hope they do because if they go down again, it’s gone.”
>Cricket News
%20(3).jpeg)
0 Comments