I guess if we could find a keeper who could bat at six we could play marsh as a bowling allrounder who bats at seven, would primarily be on our flatter pitches and he would need to be judged more on his bowling than batting on those tracks.
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Somebody on here said about six years ago that if he focussed predominantly on his bowling for eighteen months, he could become a frontline test bowler. They got laughed at, at the time but I think they were bang on. Marsh gets the basics of bowling very well and has a beautiful action. He's more than just a part-timer, he's very good.
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Marsh is truly talented but better suited to the slap happy forms of the game.
Somebody on here said about six years ago that if he focussed predominantly on his bowling for eighteen months, he could become a frontline test bowler. They got laughed at, at the time but I think they were bang on. Marsh gets the basics of bowling very well and has a beautiful action. He's more than just a part-timer, he's very good.
I guess if we could find a keeper who could bat at six we could play marsh as a bowling allrounder who bats at seven, would primarily be on our flatter pitches and he would need to be judged more on his bowling than batting on those tracks.
I don't think it was me that made the original comment you're referring to from that long ago, but I have said in the past that I think the way forward for him would be to focus more on his bowling. His batting has largely been potential rather than output for nearly all of his career, at least in the long form of the game.
His Shield record with the ball is very overlooked, and his batting gets very over-rated and over-highlighted:
Batting - 28.44 average (4 hundreds, 11 fifties, 9 ducks)
Bowling - 29.51 average, 51.9 strike rate, 3.41 economy rate (1 5-fer)
To be fair, he hasn't and doesn't bowl in the volume of many other front-liners, but if he was used as a front-line bowler, or very much a bowling all-rounder, I reckon that might be the way forward for him.
I think he's been held back from bowling a lot due to injury fears, but I think it's time now to throw caution to the wind and go for broke career-wise, and perhaps explore being more of a bowler. I mean, looking at his Shield numbers with the bat , if there wasn't so much of a focus on him being an all-rounder, and our "need" for an all-rounder, would anyone really care less about his batting? I mean, someone like Moises Henriques has a batting average in Shield cricket that's genuinely a lot higher (35.95), while having a respectable bowling average (32.52), and he's not someone who has ever been given much of a go in that #6 bat/#5 bowler spot (despite probably being most suited to that type of role). Marsh's batting record in Shield cricket is more of the level of James Faulkner (29.47 batting average) and Jack Wildermuth (28.20 batting average), genuine #7-#8 all-rounder types, and nobody thinks they're realistic shots at the Test side due to their batting.
In general, it seems in the Australian "search for an all-rounder" over the past 15-20-odd years, their bowling is under-valued and under-utilised, and it's often about bringing their batting up to scratch. That's probably due to a lot of the all-round prospects being a bit injury-prone and us needing batsmen more than another bowler. We need to ask ourselves, in the long form, do we want a genuine all-rounder, or just a #6 batsman who can average 40+ with the willow and respectably keep the runs down with a few random overs as the 5th bowler?
Bowled really well in this test, I think he can add a lot to the side if he's got his confidence up. I don't think guys like Henriques are any comparison in terms of being a threat with the ball.
Bowled really well in this test, I think he can add a lot to the side if he's got his confidence up. I don't think guys like Henriques are any comparison in terms of being a threat with the ball.
No Henriques wouldn’t be, but from all exposed evidence at first class level he would be a safer bet with the bat
That's the rub of it really. We're desperate for batters to fit into the top 6, regardless of how well they can bowl. Marsh hasn't shown anything at Test level or at First Class to suggest he has what we need. If we're picking him for his bowling, he has to be put up against the likes of Cummins, Hazelwood, Pattinson etc.This guy could be a really good swing bowler. Gee he'd be dangerous with a new ball. Would certainly consider him as an opening bowler at T20 cricket and perhaps as an ODI bowler.
He's just not a batsman at test level. He's not an all rounder. He's a fast-medium outswing bowler who can bat/slog a bit.
It's time we re-labeled him and started playing him for what he is.
That's the rub of it really. We're desperate for batters to fit into the top 6, regardless of how well they can bowl. Marsh hasn't shown anything at Test level or at First Class to suggest he has what we need. If we're picking him for his bowling, he has to be put up against the likes of Cummins, Hazelwood, Pattinson etc.
Hope he can score some runs today.
We have Harris and Warner at the top of the order offering nothing with the bat or ball. Yet people are focused on M Marsh.
Australian batting is in disarray, we need to understand as a collective why we are struggling and stop focusing on individual players.
Disagree, he's the only one who can swing the ball. He's ahead of Siddle in the bowling department. There's no reason as a bowling allrounder he can't come in at 8 or even 7 behind a keeper-batsman who can actually score runs. That could be Wade.nor in our best 4 bowlers.
Disagree, he's the only one who can swing the ball. He's ahead of Siddle in the bowling department. There's no reason as a bowling allrounder he can't come in at 8 or even 7 behind a keeper-batsman who can actually score runs. That could be Wade.