Shaun Marsh is as polarising as Shane Watson in his prime, writes Robert Craddock
SHAUN Marsh is Australia’s most controversial, uncontroversial cricketer. A so-so Test batsman capable of the occasional outstanding innings - and frustrating fans.
Cricket
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cricket. Followed categories will be added to My News.
SHAUN Marsh is the new Shane Watson. Australia’s most controversial, uncontroversial cricketer.
If you want to stir up a hornet’s nest just mention Marsh’s name in an online story and sit back at let the keyboard warriors storm your castle.
Within an hour or two of the leaked Australia side posted on News Corp sites on Thursday night the bazookas were firing and they haven’t stopped since.
“Find someone who loves you like the selectors like Shaun Marsh’’ or the sarcasm-laced “great to see Marsh get a chance ... the kid could be anything’’ were some of the kinder ones.
Marsh has been chosen as Australia’s No.6 – perhaps too low for a player who feels heavy dressing room nerves – in Australia’s first Test team to play England at the Gabba from Thursday.
Cam Bancroft has elbowed his way in at opener with Matt Renshaw sacked but Australia might be well served to ventilate Marsh’s nerves by sending him out to open and shifting Bancroft down the order.
LISTEN! In a special episode of Cricket Unfiltered we analyse Australia’s controversial Test team for the first Ashes Test.
You can download Cricket Unfiltered from the iTunes store
The strange thing about the vitriol Marsh attracts is he has one of the least polarising personalities you could imagine, a quietly spoken, almost introverted character and one of the game’s least offensive men.
On or off the field he is not a feather ruffler and there was a famous case early in his career when he was wrongly given out but he seemed too bashful to refer it to umpires (in this way he is different to Watson).
REVEALED: Tim Paine’s chronic foot injury
WARNIE: ‘England don’t fear Australia’
HOHNS: Selector goes in to bat for bombshells
He cops more than he deserves but, much like Watson, fans feel a sense of exasperation with his stop-start career in which a leg muscle strain or a form wobble never seems far away.
The truth about Marsh is he is not the potential champion his West Australian fans think but nor the scandalously overrated plodder he is accused on being by the online critics.
Live pictures of Shaun Marsh in the field. pic.twitter.com/VGzDFLZLVd
— Dominic Booth (@DomBooth19) November 17, 2017
Shaun Marsh is the Tony Abbott of Australia cricket. Just when you think you finally get rid of him for good, he pops up again
— Steven Hawes (@stevehawes) November 17, 2017
Good to see Shaun Marsh getting a chance at last #Ashes2017
— Phil Branagan (@philbranagan) November 17, 2017
I can't believe Shaun Marsh is 34. He must be up there on the run tally somewhere near Border and Ponting is he? 🤔 https://t.co/Bv21hn1OD0
— Shane Lenehan (@SlenehanFP) November 17, 2017
He’s smack bang in the middle. His Test average of 36 depicts precisely hat he is, a so-so Test batsman capable of the occasional outstanding innings.
Some sportsmen stir deep emotions without even trying and Marsh is one of them.
As the left hander prepares for his eighth start in Test cricket some fans sigh. Other get angry.
Some, like his state coach Justin Langer, get excited by his potential which is a strange thing to say about a player who played his initial first class match the season after the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Marsh is Australia’s barometer batsman.
When he is overlooked these days it means young talent is on the rise.
When he plays it means that talent has failed and its back to the future time.
His selection or omission is a statement on the health of Australian cricket.
If Australia’s young batsmen were firing Marsh, at age 34, without a Cricket Australia contract and just a year younger than out-to-pasture Ed Cowan, would not have been playing in Brisbane.
Marsh’s Test average overseas is higher than in Australia and there is a theory his shy personality is best suited to the quiet open expanses of sparsely populated overseas Test venues.
The madness of the Ashes will be a challenge for him and the temptation is to say it will be his last big challenge.
But with Shaun Marsh you never know.
Originally published as Shaun Marsh is as polarising as Shane Watson in his prime, writes Robert Craddock