Rising batter Cameron Green has shown he’s in exceptional touch on the road to the Ashes and veteran Shaun Marsh has put forward a case for a Test recall.
The pair were brilliant on the opening day of the Marsh Sheffield Shield season, notching a century each as Western Australia cruised to 4-324 at stumps at Adelaide’s Karen Rolton Oval.
Marsh walked to the crease at 1-23 and carved out 118 runs, including 16 boundaries, from 190 balls against South Australia‘s attack, driving beautifully through cover and tonking the spinners back over their heads.
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Green joined Marsh in the middle at 2-82 and peeled off 106 runs, including 15 boundaries, from 161 deliveries, playing a series of immaculate drives down the ground and producing some explosive pull shots.
Green is just about a lock to bat at No.5 or No.6 in Australia’s Test side this summer, on the back of his series against India last summer and recent form in the Sheffield Shield.
The promising all-rounder finished last season’s Sheffield Shield campaign as the top run-scorer, having made 922 runs at an average of 76.83.
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Marsh’s century at Karen Rolton Oval also followed a phenomenal 2020-21 Sheffield Shield campaign, in which the 38-Test batter registered 734 runs at 53.93.
While Marsh has scored six Test tons and looked very comfortable on the international stage, inconsistency has resulted in him being dropped on a host of occasions.
The elegant right-hander hasn’t played a Test since Australia met India at the SCG in January 2019 but, at the age of 38, a recall isn’t out of the question.
Former chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said in May 2020 that Marsh was “probably past representing Australia”.
However, he has since been in excellent touch and Australia have a new chairman of selectors, after George Bailey took over from Hohns in August.
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