Shaun Marsh enjoying life leading youthful Western Australia and not thinking of Aussie Test return
Shaun Marsh may be averaging 78.6 this season but clearly isn’t enthused about his Test recall prospects, with ‘a lot of good, young players doing well’ seemingly in front of him.
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Shaun Marsh couldn’t help a wry smile when the inevitable question of his Test prospects popped up again this week.
The 36-year-old averages 78.60 for Western Australia this summer following another 50 against Queensland at the Gabba last weekend but his omission from Justin Langer’s Australia A squad has seemingly closed the door on yet another comeback at international level.
So when asked for the umpteenth time whether his form warranted a recall, Marsh’s practised response re-emerged.
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“Look to be honest I haven’t really thought about it,” Marsh said.
“There’s a lot of good young players out there playing well so yeah, that’s where it sort of lays with me.”
Marsh’s batting has long been the subject of debate with many deriding his Test average of 34.31 and lack of big scores (six hundreds from 68 innings) but there’s little doubt he remains a force in domestic cricket.
The left-hander passed 500 domestic games earlier this month, faced his 22,000th first-class delivery earlier this week and averages 41.27 across all formats – impressive numbers at the least.
So for now, Marsh is happy to simply play it out with a view to securing a maiden Sheffield Shield title with his beloved Warriors, whose last success came back in 1999.
“I’m enjoying cricket at the moment, I love playing for WA and it’s been nice to get a few runs,” he said.
“The guys are playing some good cricket even though we were a little disappointing in that game but to come away (with a draw) was really important for this young group.
“We’ve obviously got a really big challenge next week against New South Wales so that’ll give us a lot of confidence today going into that game.”
Meanwhile, Queensland have named a revamped squad for next week’s four-day clash with Victoria featuring uncapped quick Blake Edwards, two-game all rounder Nathan McSweeney and the returning Matthew Renshaw.
Originally published as Shaun Marsh enjoying life leading youthful Western Australia and not thinking of Aussie Test return