Shaun Marsh, an international career finished?

[TimAngas]

With barely a whimper, it seems the end of Shaun Marsh's career for Australia. Despite having been dropped from the test side, his record as Australia's best OD batsman post Newlands in 2018 won him WC selection. With the return of Smith and Warner, he was pushed out of the first-choice XI despite a decent showing in the prior series against Pakistan in the UAE. An injury to Marcus Stoinis provided an opening, but in his two games he went in to bat with nothing to gain at 223/3 and 278/4. A broken arm suffered in the nets cruelly ended his tournament. Whatever his performances in England, you could argue the writing was on the wall anyway. At 36, Marsh is certainly not on the radar for 2023 and there seems to be a good 5-6 test bats ahead of him in the race for selection now. It seems highly unlikely Marsh will play another match.

While he underperformed at test level and criminally failed (in fact, his performances declined) to step up in the absence of Smith and Warner, his final career numbers are no Lahiru Thirimanne. For me, his best innings were clearly matchwinning hundreds against South Africa in Centurion and England in Adelaide. I predicted here on CW that he would be the Mitchell Johnson story of those Ashes and I guess I wasn't entirely off the mark. His effort that played a big part in saving a test in Ranchi also deserves special mention.

His record as a one day bat is really good though, punctuated by 4 hundreds in the last year or so. He seemed like a player who needed time and with the dearth of top order opportunities available in this world cup it seemed like he was going to really struggle.

 

[Starfighter]

Feels a bit mean saying this, but to answer the question in the title: hopefully.

 

[TimAngas]

Definitely one of the most maligned players in recent times for any country really. Interesting to see how people have come back around to Shane Watson in the years since his international retirement, but I'm not so sure the same will happen with Marsh.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Feels a bit mean saying this, but to answer the question in the title: hopefully.

I feel the same way, but he IIRC averaged 50+ in the last year of ODIs leading up to the WC, and playing in a pretty ordinary team. There's no doubt he has been one of the best ODI bats in the world, even recently.

It's his constant failures at Test level, or more specifically his repeated selection despite failures, that have pissed fans off. Ironically if the selectors were harsher on him and treated him a bit more like everyone else then he probably wouldn't be anywhere near as maligned as he is, if at all.

 

[trundler]

Averaging in the teens in UAE against a modest Pakistani attack is unforgivable.

 

[mr_mister]

And also possess the highest % of single digit scores for a specialist bat in test history

 

[sledger]

Never heard of him, but good luck to him I guess.

 

[Howe_zat]

I wouldn't go as far as to call him underrated, but unfairly maligned. I remember calling his selection in 2015 one of the worst I've ever seen (on the record), and even I think he copped it much harder on here than he should have in the years that followed.

Criticisim of the elder Marsh is usually framed as criticising the pair of them, which always seems more memetic than analytic.

 

[Red]

Good as anyone to watch on his day.

His stats are remarkably similar to his dad's.

 

[Red]

I wouldn't go as far as to call him underrated, but unfairly maligned. I remember calling his selection in 2015 one of the worst I've ever seen (on the record), and even I think he copped it much harder on here than he should have in the years that followed.

Criticisim of the elder Marsh is usually framed as criticising the pair of them, which always seems more memetic than analytic.

His 148 against Steyn, Philander and Morkel was just magic. Guy had all the talent in the world.

 

[Red]

And FWIW, although Khawaja was decent at the WC, I think I would have preferred SMarsh over him.

 

[Bijed]

Made more genuinely impressive contributions in tests than future generations will likely surmise from a glance at his stats, equally, his numbers ended up as mediocre because he was often genuinely rubbish in between all the good bits. Talented but frustrating and I ended up rooting for him somewhat due to all the flak he seemed to cop from everywhere

His ODI career mostly impressed me for the period that I actually noticed it, which was basically over the last couple of years.

 

[Kirkut]

He had a reputation of being a six hitting machine in first 2 seasons of IPL.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

A poor man's Marcus Stoinis

 

[NZTailender]

but he has so much potential, the young bloke

 

[TimAngas]

Definitely had one of the most inconsistent runs in a test side I can possibly think of, being reselected maybe a dozen or so times. I think the initial angst over Shaun Marsh's place in the Australian side came after the return from his first hamstring injury. After an excellent first few tests he missed the start of the home summer then went 0, 3, 0, 11, 3, 0 against India which seemed like too long a rope at the time but in hindsight Australia were utterly dominating that series and I think it was worth giving him an extended chance. Recalled against South Africa in 2014 he made that brilliant 148 in Centurion that Red Hill mentioned then made a horrific pair in the next game and got dropped since Shane Watson was fit again. It got even weirder when he was recalled against India in 2014-15 at no. 5 then moved up to open for for Chris Rogers who got concussed, played decently then got dropped for the 2015 Ashes due to insistence on having 5 bowlers, before being recalled in the 4th test where he did nothing to stop a rampant Stuart Broad, after which the decision was reversed and he was redropped for his brother. He came back in for an injured Khawaja, made 182 against (a joke) West Indies attack and wasn't picked for the next test. That's only the first half his career but gives a sense of the volatility in his selection.

 

[mr_mister]

Having a highest score of 40(including 7 single digit scores) in the 6 tests he played between aussie summers last year(the SA and Pak series) and still walking into the side for the first test against India pissed me off. sick of these players who notch up a few home tons in perfect conditions then completely flop overseas all year but it doesnt matter at all because then a home summer rolls around again for them to consolidate their spot and they end up never getting dropped!

 

[TheJediBrah]

Definitely had one of the most inconsistent runs in a test side I can possibly think of, being reselected maybe a dozen or so times. I think the initial angst over Shaun Marsh's place in the Australian side came after the return from his first hamstring injury. After an excellent first few tests he missed the start of the home summer then went 0, 3, 0, 11, 3, 0 against India which seemed like too long a rope at the time but in hindsight Australia were utterly dominating that series and I think it was worth giving him an extended chance. Recalled against South Africa in 2014 he made that brilliant 148 in Centurion that Red Hill mentioned then made a horrific pair in the next game and got dropped since Shane Watson was fit again. It got even weirder when he was recalled against India in 2014-15 at no. 5 then moved up to open for for Chris Rogers who got concussed, played decently then got dropped for the 2015 Ashes due to insistence on having 5 bowlers, before being recalled in the 4th test where he did nothing to stop a rampant Stuart Broad, after which the decision was reversed and he was redropped for his brother. He came back in for an injured Khawaja, made 182 against (a joke) West Indies attack and wasn't picked for the next test. That's only the first half his career but gives a sense of the volatility in his selection.

The volatility of this selection, as you put it, was down to him keeping on getting picked ahead of all other options. He was never really dropped when he shouldn't have been, but he was picked when he probably shouldn't have been a lot.

Compared to contemporaries like Callum Ferguson, who was picked for 1 Test, was ran out, and then never heard of again, calling his treatment preferential would be an understatement. It's the inconsistency of the selectors in this regard that's led to him (and brother) becoming memes.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

The treatment of Ferguson after that Hobart test was truly appalling, probably the worst thing our selectors have done. There is sure a lot of competition for that "honour" but CalFerg getting shafted still pisses me off to this day

 

[NUFAN]

That was such an ill advised run by Ferguson. TBH during the WC when Khawaja and Marsh went down, Ferguson would have been an ideal choice.

Red Hill funny how you said his stats are similar to his dads.. Reminds me of the thread i created (its in the similar threada section).