Robert Craddock: In-form Mitchell Marsh’s true value to Australia goes beyond bat and ball

There’s a long line of young guns waiting to step up when Mitchell Marsh’s time in the Australian Test team is up, but the resurgent all-rounder will leave the toughest of gaps to fill, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Even before he hits a four or bowls a ball Mitchell Marsh’s contribution to the Australian cricket team starts from the fact he is its Switzerland.

He’s not part of any bowling clique. He is not part of any batting group offended by what happened in Sandpapergate.

When many teammates were having trouble mixing with aggrieved former players after Justin Langer’s axing as coach put a wedge between generations, one great revealed Marsh was one of few players who still chatted to him with customary warmth.

Like his place in the batting order, Marsh sits unassumingly in the middle of everything, with people above and below him running the show, leaving him to be the glue which brings teammates together.

As allrounders go, he doesn’t bowl like Keith Miller or bat like Jacques Kallis.

But the best of him, as evidenced by his first innings 90 before a home crowd who gave him the game’s biggest ovation when he walked to the crease, is deceptively good.

There are some players whose worth to the side goes beyond stats and he is one of them.

When his time does end there will be a little gap that will be hard to fill.

Mitch Marsh is a weapon for Australia. Picture: Getty Images

“He makes the change room just a better place in general,’’ Adam Zampa said recently of Marsh.

“He lights it up. He’s funny. He’s the butt of a lot of the jokes as well. So you can throw that at him and he takes it really well.

“People take the piss out of the size of him, the size of his head, his haircuts.’’

Marsh once told the story of when he was out of form he went for a surf seeking solitude by paddling out beyond the waves and seemingly beyond the world of public scrutiny.

There was just one lone surfer out there with him but he looked at Marsh and said “isn’t it about time you scored some runs?’’

Marsh’s latest Test match resurgence is one of most interesting stories in Australian cricket with all sorts of quirky threads.

He has been tagged as Australia’s new T20 captain but the better he goes in Test cricket the harder it will be for him to fill that role.

Allrounders have had an intriguing presence in Australian cricket.

The eternal bench was the great Miller who averaged 37 with the bat and 23 with the ball.

For more than 60 years after his retirement Australia bemoaned the fact that it could find no-one like him.

Suddenly now there are richly talently options for the present and the future.

Behind Marsh is the extremely talented Cameron Green who surely will be a 10-year player. Behind Green is Aaron Hardie who is one of the best Sheffield Shield players in the land.

Behind Hardie there is Will Sutherland who just has the look of a robust international anchorman of the future.

The challenges will come and thick and fast but Marsh might be deceptively hard to replace, especially when some of the greats retire and the team, more than ever, needs a man with a smile on his dial.