Marsh ready to make his mark in Sri Lanka

Having acted as the unofficial fitness advisor to the home team on his only prior tour to Sri Lanka, Mitchell Marsh is preparing for an altogether heavier workload when Australia’s Test series gets underway in the island nation next week.

Marsh was a wide-eyed 10-year-old when he accompanied his father, former Australia Test opener Geoff Marsh, on a tour to Sri Lanka with Zimbabwe in 2001 when his dad was coaching the African team.

The budding young allrounder became something of a mascot for the Sri Lankans who allowed him to lead their pre-match warm-up drills and stretching routines despite his obvious familial allegiance to their opponents.

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Despite going on to skipper Australia’s under-19 team and establish himself as a regular in the Indian Premier League, the now 24-year-old Marsh has not had an opportunity to hone his red ball cricket skills in subcontinental conditions since making his Test debut against Pakistan in the UAE two years ago.

But with Australia likely to employ two specialist spinners (Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe) in the upcoming Tests at Pallekele, Galle and Colombo, Marsh’s bowling output will increase notably as he assumes the role of first-change seamer.

A chance that he is relishing, given that it should mean he gets his hands on the ball when it still retains some of its sheen to help generate swing and hardness that will provide extra bounce on typically flat, slow Sri Lankan pitches.

“If we’ve got two spinners then I’ll probably bowl a bit more with the newer ball, being the third seamer,” Marsh told cricket.com.au in Colombo as the Australians trained in preparation for a three-day tour match against an as-yet-unnamed Sri Lankan Board XI starting tomorrow.

“It’s always nice in these conditions to bowl when the ball’s a little bit harder and potentially swinging a little bit.

“But I don’t really mind to be honest.

“For me it’s about just playing the conditions.

“I’ll be attacking the stumps as much as I can with fields that allow me to bowl like that (aggressively).

“And depending on who’s bowling at the other end, my role will change.”

Marsh has fleeting experience of playing as the Test team’s third specialist seamer, having filled the role behind Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson in last summer’s third Test against the West Indies in Sydney.

But that match was dogged by rain with less than two full days’ play completed, and Marsh was asked to bowl just four overs while Lyon and O’Keefe clocked up 72 between them.

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It will be a far different proposition against a Sri Lankan team that is expected to prove a vastly more competitive outfit in home conditions than they managed on their recent winless tour to the UK.

While the opposition they will face over the next three days remains a mystery – with Sri Lanka’s selection options limited by the fact their national ‘A’ team as well as their under-19s are currently playing in England – the Australians have a fair idea of the conditions they will face.

Today’s training session was conducted amid stifling afternoon humidity at the lush P Sara Stadium where the pitch for the three-day game had been shorn of the heavy mat of grass it sported on Friday but is likely to offer more encouragement to the seamers than will the subsequent Test strips.

The Australians are expected to field the same line-up they will take into the opening Test at Pallekele on July 26 with the exception of vice-captain David Warner who continues his recovery from the fracture he sustained to his left index finger in the Caribbean recently.

Warner was preparing to bat in the nets at today’s session until he copped a blow on the right shoulder from an errant ball and instead spent much of the session as a spectator until facing up to the spinners late in the day.

Shaun Marsh, Mitchell’s older brother, is expected to fill Warner’s role as Joe Burns’s opening partner in the tour match Hazlewood (who has shouldered a significant workload of late) and Marsh’s fellow allrounder Moises Henriques to also sit-out the tour match.

The 12th man will be named in the morning, with fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile likely to run the drinks.

As was interim bowling coach Allan Donald, with whom Mitchell Marsh is looking forward to working closely with having established a close bond with the ex-South Africa quick at IPL franchise the Pune Warriors several years ago.

“He’s a great guy,” Marsh said about the chance to once again work with Donald who will fill the role of fast bowling guru for the Sri Lanka tour before former Victoria coach David Saker takes on the job of assistant coach for the limited-overs tour to South Africa in September.

“It’s unbelievable to have someone like him (Donald) around the squad with a young bowling attack.

“When you first come into a team you just want to have a look and see how everyone goes about their business, but over the next few months I’m really looking to working with him.

“And if he sees anything in my bowling that I can improve, I’ll be all ears.”