You get the feeling that the Australian selectors still have their cricket gear from their playing days.
They seem scared to throw anything out, always looking to reuse and recycle rather than going for a fresh look.
The latest example of their penchant for preferring yesteryear over the future is coach Andrew McDonald’s comments that the selectors haven’t given up on Mitchell Marsh’s Test career.
Why haven’t they?
He is now being considered as a potential option to bolster the batting in the Test team.
Why?
He’s 34, he barely plays first-class cricket these days and although his recent form in the ODI and T20 teams has been impressive, his Test output plummeted last year.
In the 2024 calendar year, he managed just 283 from 15 trips to the crease, passing 50 just twice, at an average of 18.86.
With the ball, he also tailed off with just eight wickets in those nine Tests at 426, bowling just 57 overs so he did not soak up too much work for the frontline bowlers at a little more than seven overs per match.
“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,” McDonald said.
“It’s very hard for him to vacate and balance out Test preparation, if he was to be in the window for that.”
Marsh on Wednesday did not sound like someone who is desperate to dust off his baggy green cap.
“I was hoping for a month off after this to be honest,” Marsh told reporters with a smile.
Mitch Marsh looks dejected while leaving the field last summer against India. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
“Honestly, I haven’t given it much thought. I do love playing for Western Australia, so we’ll see where it lands at the end of this series.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has floated the idea of Marsh opening the batting for the Test side because he’s been doing such a good job at the top of the order in the white-ball squads.
The key word in that description of Vaughan is England.
He doesn’t want Australia to win.
If Marsh opens in the Test side even though he has always been a middle-order player or first drop at best in the first-class arena, that would benefit (here’s that word again) England.
Marsh’s first priority is the three-match T20 series against India which starts on Wednesday and according to McDonald, if he can get some decent Sheffield Shield form under his belt over the next month, he is a chance to play a part in the Ashes.
Rather than pontificating about bringing back a player who has had his time in the sun at Test level, the Aussies should be more concerned with solving their top-order dilemma.
Neither Sam Konstas or Jake Weatherald has mounted a strong enough case to be Usman Khawaja’s opening partner for the opening Ashes Test in Perth on November 21.
With two Shield rounds left before the Aussies lock horns with England at Optus Stadium, the selectors are in “cross your fingers” territory.
Sam Konstas. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images for Cricket Australia)
Weatherald was out for a duck for Tasmania on Wednesday while Konstas sat around watching the rain in Brisbane all day.
The teams didn’t even get to the coin toss – the Ashes hopeful could be walking out to a juiced-up Gabba on Thursday. Hardly the ideal circumstances to push your case.
Marnus Labuschagne’s form for Queensland means the selectors can be confident if they throw him back into the team.
But that still doesn’t solve the problem with the opening partnership.
Nearly two years since David Warner’s protracted retirement and three years since they should have brought in a new opener alongside Khawaja, the selectors are still no closer to solving the problem of who will be Australia’s next long-time opener.
And we are less than months away from that problem doubling with Khawaja set to retire after the fifth Test at the SCG, if his form (and the selection panel’s reluctance to make changes) allows him to sign off at his old home ground.
If Konstas, Weatherald, Queensland’s Matt Renshaw or no other alternative opener bangs down the proverbial selection door, the selectors will be forced to try Labuschagne at the top of the order again even though he struggled in the unaccustomed role at the World Test Championship final in June against South Africa.
But for this selection panel, recycling old ideas are all the rage even if they didn’t work the first time around.