To say Shaun Marsh had a dreadful Test series in Australia’s defeat to Pakistan would be an understatement, but coach Justin Langer is backing the left-hander to keep his ODI spot.
The senior of the Marsh siblings’ spot in the squad came under increasing scrutiny following Australia’s heavy 373-run defeat to Pakistan in the second Test at Abu Dhabi.
The 35-year-old could only muster a paltry 14 runs combined from his four innings in the series, but Langer believes that the senior batsman needs to be given time to come good in white-ball cricket ahead of Australia’s home season.
“SOS has obviously had a poor series and he knows that,” Langer told cricket.com.au.
“You can see it in his face he knows he’s had a poor series.
“So then you (have to) get the balancing act right as a selector.”
There have been calls for Marsh to return to Sheffield Shield cricket in a bid to rediscover his red-ball form, but Langer feels that runs in white-ball cricket could help the batsman equally.
Shaun Marsh was horribly out of form in the Test series.
“On merit, he has to play the one-dayers. In his last five one-day internationals for Australia, he’s scored two hundreds. You’ve got to be fair and reward people for performance,” said Langer.
“On the flipside of that, by playing the one-dayers then he might not play Shield cricket. But having said all that, runs are the currency of value. Whether you’re making them in T20 cricket or one-day cricket or Sheffield Shield cricket or Test cricket. The only currency of value are runs. That’s just the truth of it,” he continued.
Marsh will now be hoping that he can put up the runs when Australia lock horns with South Africa in an ODI series next month.
