Mitch Marsh admits decisions will need to be made as disappointing T20 exit ignites team regeneration
After Australia’s disappointing T20 World Cup exit, Mitch Marsh has declared that there could be further change on the cards with an eye on the future.
Mitchell Marsh admits a regeneration of the Australian T20 team could be on the cards, as the first-time captain said he would learn plenty from a challenging initiation into World Cup leadership.
The Australian squad and staff honoured retiring all-format great David Warner on Tuesday morning in St Lucia as the pain of being suddenly eliminated from the World Cup before the semi-final stage started to sink in.
Warner was presented with a bottle of grange and sent off with a fitting speech from his former under 19s Australian coach Brian McFadyen as players toasted an opening batsman who broke the mould in all three formats and will be difficult to replace.
However, Marsh concedes Warner may not be the only veteran to depart the T20 set-up over the coming months, as Australia begin to plot its road to the next Twenty20 World Cup in 2026, by which time the vast majority of the current XI will be aged into their mid-to-late 30s.
“Yeah I think that’s something that we’ll speak about in the coming months as a group,” Marsh said.
“We’ve got a core group that is really experienced and amazing cricketers and we’ve also got a lot of young guys who are coming through that we’ll see get opportunities.
“In this squad alone we had (Josh) Inglis, (Jake) Fraser-McGurk, (Matthew) Short, (Cameron) Green – a lot of guys who will play a lot of cricket for Australia over the next period of time.
“We’ll lose Davey and there’s a number of experienced guys that will have to make decisions, but the core group will hopefully stay together for the coming months.”
Marsh came into the white ball set up as a young man alongside Pat Cummins in 2011 at a time when experienced greats like Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey were able to show them the ropes.
The 32-year-old T20 skipper believes it’s important to phase experienced players out gradually so the young bucks coming through can benefit from their presence in the dressing room.
“The great thing when you get young guys in and around the squad is they provide you with a lot of energy,” Marsh said.
“Their willingness to learn and their work ethic.
“They’re all at the start of their journey playing cricket for Australia. And I reflect on my time as a young kid and the importance of having really solid leaders and experienced players around you to help you develop at this level is really important.
“I think as an Australian cricket team we’ve always got that balance right and it’s an important responsibility for the senior players in our group moving forward to guide these guys and get them as much game time as we can in international cricket.”
Marsh will continue on as T20 captain beyond this World Cup but concedes there are tough lessons he will take from the West Indies, where he did not have the impact as a player he has had in previous World Cups.
The West Australian dropped three catches against Scotland and a crucial one against India in what proved Australia’s last match in the tournament – and he was unable to quite produce the captain’s knock his team was craving when a semi-final place was going on the line.
There is the prospect Marsh could also take over from Cummins as ODI captain as well, but the all-rounder was keen to let the dust settle as he absorbs the disappointment of a shock exit.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it … T20, there is moments of high stress where you’re under pressure. I’ll take a lot of learnings from that with my leadership moving forward,” Marsh said.
“I think the only difference is when you’re captaining on the field, you’re more engaged in the next move and what’s actually happening in the game.
“I still thoroughly enjoyed walking out on the field with the team. I had a lot of fun. One of our key markers for the tournament was trusting ourselves and making sure we’re enjoying it and having fun, and as a leader I thought it was important to make sure I was living that.
“Unfortunately we lost a couple of important games and we’re out of the tournament.
“I think for now it’s more just reflecting on the tournament itself. It was a huge honour to captain at this World Cup and I certainly would have liked to go the whole way, but I don’t necessarily want to think too far ahead with all that sort of stuff (captaining the white ball teams).
“We’ll reflect on it as a leadership group and then move forward from there.”
Marsh conceded Australia’s fielding and catching wasn’t good enough, but defended the work ethic of his players in that area.
“I saw blokes put in the work. There were parts of our skill that wasn’t executed in the field under pressure and that’s something we can definitely reflect on. But in terms of us putting in the work and having the emphasis on it, it’s something that we pride ourselves on,” Marsh said.
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