I got shaken up last night.
I was reading an article by excellent cricket journo, Dan Brettig, about the Aussie Test side and came across the following quote.
Mitchell Marsh’s Test career might not be over . . . where was the trigger warning?!
Now I love Mitch Marsh. He’s close to the most likeable Aussie cricketer I’ve ever seen.
And as a white ball player I am more than happy to have him in the Aussie side: he’s a clean striker of the ball and, on his day, a match winner.
But at Test level?
No way.
Sure – he has had his moments. The hundred in the Ashes back in 2017/18 – when he and brother Shaun celebrated mid-run, almost giving captain Steve Smith a heart attack: that was awesome. As was his hundred at Leeds in the Ashes of 2023.
But frankly, when his entire Test record is considered, he might be the worst player we have had – excluding those who only got a handful of games.
I’ve done the numbers. For all players with 2,000+ Test runs, here are the batters with the lowest averages. I’ve numbered the six worst specialist batters (ie excluding bowlers and wicketkeepers):
Mitch Marsh comes in with the second lowest (incidentally, his father (4th) and brother (6th) are on the list too, not that I am holding Mitch accountable for this!)
The only bloke with a lower average than Mitch Marsh’s 28.53 was Syd Gregory, who played 130 years ago when pitches were treacherous.
Now, some of you might say I am being harsh on Marsh because he isn’t just a batter – he bowls as well. Okay, here are the worst averages for Aussie pace bowlers in Test cricket (minimum 50 wickets).
Mitch comes in at rock bottom – with an average of 40.41 runs per wicket.
I rest my case.
I know he’s a project player and I know he has had some decent patches at Test level. But taken as a whole, enough is enough. He’s 33 years old – the notion that he is suddenly going to rise above these woeful figures and dominate at Test level is fanciful.
It is time to draw a red line though his name for our red ball team, once and for good.
