Pat Cummins has opened the door for Mitchell Marsh to make a comeback to Test cricket as soon as the series in South Africa, believing the white-ball bruiser still has it in him to change red-ball games, like he did at Headingley in the 2023 Ashes.
A move back to Marsh would likely raise eyebrows given he last played a Test in December 2024 and at a time when Australia is under mounting pressure to start regenerating their ageing group.
However, there is also a view within the team that a brutal calendar of Test matches against tough opponents in challenging locations is not a time to be experimenting with youth.
While Marnus Labuschagne is the incumbent No.3, it would be plausible for Marsh to occupy that position. Similarly, he could also take on the kind of middle-order enforcer role that Travis Head gave up to go to the top of the order last summer in the Ashes.
Expected to play in the final ODI against the Proteas in Johannesburg, starting at 9.30pm (AEST) Wednesday, 34-year-old Marsh retired from first-class cricket for Western Australia last summer, but has pointedly not retired from Tests. Marsh has scores of 36, 53, eight, 60 and 84 from five ODIs on this tour, all made quickly.
“He definitely hasn’t retired, so you never know,” Cummins told this masthead ahead of the three-Test series starting in Durban next week. “He’s hitting the ball beautifully in white-ball cricket, he’s destructive and a pretty scary proposition, so if it made sense, he’s not retired. I’d like him to keep some options open.”
The selectors have kept Marsh in their thoughts over the past 12 months, after he lost his Test place to Beau Webster in early 2025 at the end of that summer’s Border-Gavaskar series against India.
At the time, Marsh was battling a series of interrelated physical issues with his back and hamstrings, but has since recovered much of his former mobility and has also trimmed down while playing franchise cricket, most recently in the Hundred in the UK.
Marsh is still considered one of the best players of high pace in Australia, a significant consideration given looming assignments against the Proteas and also England next year.
“We would be comfortable picking someone, and if you want to put a name to it, Mitch Marsh, out of white-ball cricket, if we felt like that was going to benefit the Test team,” Australian coach Andrew McDonald said of Marsh in October.
Marsh has also contributed in South Africa – during the cataclysmic 2018 tour, he made 96 in the first Test in Durban, the batting cornerstone of a victory that would be overshadowed by subsequent events.
Asked about how Marsh took on the now-retired England speedster Mark Wood at Headingley, Cummins said that was key to the white-ball skipper’s value.
“He’s similar to a Trav Head-type player in that he can win a game by himself,” Cummins said. “He’s really good at going against the flow of express pace bowling, or a tough wicket where trying to guts it out might not necessarily work.
“He can really put the attack back onto the bowlers, and I think that changes the whole dynamic of a batting order. That’s why when he was at his best in Test cricket he did so well. I remember that Headingley innings fondly.”
In addition to Marsh’s batting ability, he is also considered a strong team man and a unifying personality, notably close to Cummins and something of a link between the batting and bowling groups within the squad.
“It feels like we’ve been ships in the night a little bit on a fair few tours over the last 12 months,” Cummins said. “He’s such an awesome leader, coming in and seeing how well-run the white-ball squads are; I think it’s down to his leadership.”
Marsh’s stocks as a possible injection to the batting order have also have risen via the finger fracture suffered by Josh Inglis. That event may also have some influence on Marnus Labuschagne, who was retained largely because Cummins and the selectors felt that three innings against Bangladesh weren’t a big enough sample from which to make up their minds on his future.
“I think there was a big shift from six months ago to seeing how he prepared for the form he was in in that Bangladesh series,” Cummins said. “It didn’t pay off in the three innings there, but it’s a relatively small sample size. There were good signs, but he does need to score runs, like any other batter in a side.
“It’s about not going and chasing something … we know what it looks like at his best. He doesn’t need to play a thousand shots, doesn’t need to go chasing something he doesn’t already have.
“The other thing with Marn is, when he has gone back and played Shield cricket or county cricket, he has been that top-tier run scorer at that level, so we know he’s good enough. It’s a big series for him, he’s picked in the squad, which shows how much we think he’s worth to us.”
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.From our partners
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