He was dropped and stopped bowling, but selectors say Mitch Marsh’s Test career isn’t over

Power hitter Mitchell Marsh may give up bowling to prolong his international career as selectors weigh up a possible Test recall for him to combat an expected Ashes bouncer barrage from England.

On the day Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann and Beau Webster earned their first Cricket Australia contracts, selection chair George Bailey flagged that Marsh’s Test days may not be over despite losing his place at the end of the home summer.

The Australian selectors have not given up on Mitch Marsh as a Test match batter.Credit: Getty Images

Back issues that first flared in September during a white-ball tour of England went on to affect 33-year-old Marsh against India and kept him out of cricket until the Indian Premier League, where he has flourished so far as an “impact player” who does not have to bowl or field.

With England seemingly set on a pace-heavy attack on Australia from the likes of Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse, Marsh’s ability to hook, cut and drive off the back foot will keep him in Australia’s thoughts for the Ashes.

“I don’t necessarily think his red-ball career is over,” Bailey said on Tuesday. “He’s had some injury issues towards the back end of the summer, he was battling with his back a little bit. It’s an ongoing conversation as to whether bowling may or may not fit into his international cricket going forward. At the moment in the IPL he’s available only as a batter.

“I don’t think he was scoring the runs he wanted or we wanted when we left him out of the Test side, but there’s still an incredibly exciting skill set there with the bat, the way he can rip a game open.

“If you look ahead to a team like England and the way they play their cricket, the way they seem to be framing up their team, I think he’s got a skill set there that could be helpful. He’s still captain of our T20 team, he can play an incredibly important role in setting that team up and hopefully leading that team to success in the World Cup. I think he’s got plenty of one-day cricket left in him as well.”

Victorian batter Matt Short was another player who turned heads in the Australian hierarchy with the way he took on Wood and Archer in the Champions Trophy game in Pakistan, playing with real authority off the back foot in a high-pressure game. Josh Inglis made a similar impact when he helped shepherd home a tricky chase against South Africa in the 2023 World Cup semi-final in Kolkata, ultimately leading to a Test debut in Sri Lanka.

Teenaged batter Konstas and seasoned all-rounder Webster were at the opposite ends of the experience scale, but both made important contributions to the Test series victory over India last summer.

Konstas was chosen as a circuit-breaker for Australia at the top of the order on Boxing Day, when a daring innings of 60 helped set up a victory that broke a 1-1 tie in the Border-Gavaskar series.

Webster was then called up for the final Test in Sydney in place of a struggling Mitch Marsh, and showed great maturity with the bat, the ball and in the field to make himself very useful for the Australian cause in a low-scoring match.

Kuhnemann dominated Sri Lanka on spin-friendly pitches in Galle, before independent testing cleared his bowling action, which had been called into question by a highly-publicised report from the match officials in the second Test.

With the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s to be followed by three Tests in the West Indies and then a home Ashes summer, Australia’s adaptability will be stretched across a variety of conditions in the next 12 months.

Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Inglis and the returning Cameron Green are among the batters competing for a couple of spots in the Australian Test top six.

Sam Konstas and Pat Cummins celebrate Australia’s victory in the fourth Test of last summer at the MCG.Credit: Getty Images

“We’ve got Cam Green returning and hopefully that continues to track well and he’s going to head to England and play a little bit of cricket in the lead-up to that,” Bailey said. “Along with Sam we’ve also seen Beau Webster and Josh Inglis perform really well when they’ve had opportunities, so we’ll work through that over the coming months.

“We’ve got a lot of guys playing cricket in India, we’ve got an extended squad of guys who will be prepping and doing a bit of work in Australia with some camps in Brisbane in the leadup to that as well, so we’ve got options.

“The one thing I will say about that and the way we’ve viewed the World Test Championships I’ve been involved in is they are one-off games, they are quite specific to that and in England in those conditions. So the way we frame that and potentially look at how we structure that team may be different than the West Indies tour.”

Nathan McSweeney, who had the toughest possible first three Tests against a rampant Jasprit Bumrah, was not offered a contract, and the West Australian all-rounder Cooper Connolly was also missing despite international debuts in all three formats over the past 12 months.

Cricket Australia contract list 2025-26: Xavier Bartlett, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Matt Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster, Adam Zampa

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