Red-ball return in play for Ashes wildcard Marsh

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Red-ball return in play for Ashes wildcard Marsh

The prospect of the 34-year-old adding to his 46 Tests this summer remains in play

Mitch Marsh could next month play red-ball cricket for the first time since his Test axing as selectors keep the door ajar for the T20 skipper’s return to the Baggy Green.

In typically good humour in Canberra on Tuesday, Marsh once again deflected questions about his Ashes prospects ahead of the BKT Tyres T20I series opener against India at Manuka Oval tomorrow night.

The 34-year-old has not played first-class cricket since last summer’s Boxing Day Test against India. He was dropped for Beau Webster for the Sydney Test after averaging 10.42 for the series, but the hard-hitting batter remains in Ashes calculations.

Coach Andrew McDonald said this week the panel would not hesitate to pick a player like Marsh out of white-ball cricket. A more plausible scenario might be for Marsh to return to the Sheffield Shield after the five-T20 campaign against India concludes next week.

Western Australia play South Australia at Adelaide Oval on November 22 and then Victoria at the MCG on December 4. Conveniently, those venues are ones Australia subsequently play England at in the weeks after that final Shield round before the BBL break.

Marsh joked that he had been “hoping for a month off” after the India series before McDonald suggested he should play the fifth and sixth Shield rounds.

“I haven’t given it much thought, to be honest,” Marsh said of a return to the Test side. “It’s been a busy schedule with our white-ball tour. I’m just focused on this series for now.

“I do love playing for Western Australia, so we’ll just see where it lands at the end of this series.”

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Marsh has continuously brushed off suggestions he remains in the Test frame, but the selection panel has not forgotten that he averaged 47 in 10 Tests between his 2023 Ashes return and the start of last summer’s Border Gavaskar Trophy series.

His bowling is no longer a factor – he has not sent down a single over in any cricket since his last Test appearance – but all three of his Test hundreds have come against England.

His most recent, his 114 in his comeback Test at Headingley, came against a Mark Wood-led England attack.

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Marsh’s ability to combat high pace is his major drawcard. England, led by the likes of Wood and Jofra Archer, are bringing out one of their fastest seam attacks to Australia in recent memory.

That Marsh’s white-ball form has been so strong this year – he is averaging 60.80 in ODIs in 2025 and 71.50 in T20Is alongside a strike-rate of 178.75 – also works in his favour.

“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,” McDonald said on Monday.

“He’s the captain of the white-ball team. It’s very hard for him to vacate and balance out Test preparation, if he was to be in the window for that.

“We feel he’s batting as well as he has for a long period of time. When he got dropped last summer, I think he (held) one of our highest averages from Headingley (in the 2023 Ashes) to that point.

“He hit a bit of a flat patch there, and we felt it best at that time to bring Beau Webster in.

“(But) we still haven’t given up on Mitch Marsh’s Test career.

“So what would the prep look like for him? It would have to be through white ball or maybe some Shield cricket after white-ball (games against India) if he isn’t in that first (Test) squad and then can press his claim through that.

“There’s Shield (rounds) five and six also when we’re playing the Test matches, where players that aren’t in the first Test will obviously go to work then.”