Marsh ‘staggered’ by batting woes

Rod Marsh has conceded that the team he and his fellow selectors agonised over for last week’s fourth Test was the toughest he’s had to choose, but that if he had his time over he would come up with the same squad of players that have surrendered the Ashes with one Test to play.

Marsh, chair of the four-man selection panel that also includes coach Darren Lehmann who admitted after the humiliating loss at Trent Bridge they had got the XI wrong, accepted his share of the blame but also identified Australia’s middle-order batting as its gaping weakness.

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And he called upon Australia’s batsmen to become “more selfish” and to bat for longer periods as they move into the post-Michael Clarke era which begins with three of their next four away Test series being played in subcontinental conditions – in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India.

Marsh, 67, was appointed in May last year on a three-year contract to head up the four-man selection panel but finds himself under scrutiny after the decision to select an experienced Ashes squad – labelled ‘Dad’s Army’ on their arrival in the UK – misfired.

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After losing each of their past two Tests in less than three days and with England claiming their fourth consecutive Ashes win on home soil despite starting the campaign as rank outsiders, Marsh claimed he stands by the 17-man squad that has so under-performed.

“You’ve got to be held accountable – fine, I agree with that,” Marsh said today in Northampton where Australia will play a three-day tour match ahead of the final Test that begins at The Oval on August 20.

“But I’m just racking my brain to try and think of who else we could have picked.

“If I had my time again, to sit down and choose the batsmen to come to England it would have been exactly the same.

“I just couldn’t think of anyone else who could have done the job.

“We picked blokes with experience in these conditions, we picked blokes that we thought would get runs.

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“Our blokes scored more runs than their (England’s) top-order, but our middle-order scored no runs and that was the big differential – we just didn’t score any runs in the middle.

“If you have a look at our first innings batting it’s been deplorable, it’s all you can say.

“How the hell do you (foresee) that, how do you see some of the best batsmen in the world make no runs in the first innings of four Test matches basically.

“It just staggered me.”

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It was the problems with the batting – with middle-order specialists Michael Clarke, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Mitchell Marsh and Shaun Marsh contributing less than 350 runs between them across four Tests – that led to the change in selection policy for the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.

The sight of a green-tinged pitch coupled with the softness of Australia’s middle-order – with Clarke describing his poor form as meaning his team was effectively playing with 10 men – meant seam-bowling allrounder Mitchell Marsh was omitted in favour of an extra batsman, his brother Shaun.

The XI was not finalised until shortly before the coin toss, which Clarke lost ensuring Australia were forced to bat first in testing conditions, with unconfirmed reports that if Mitchell Marsh had played then Peter Siddle would also have come into the team in place of one of the other more profligate quicks.

Australia was then bowled out for 60 in less than 20 overs, with Shaun Marsh scoring 0 and 2 and England’s seam-bowling allrounder Ben Stokes returning career-best figures of 6-36 in the tourists’ second innings.

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“That's probably the hardest selection I've been involved in because I thought there were three or four options, every one of which could have been fantastic and every one of which could have been poor,” Rod Marsh said today.

“There was no way known I was going to make up my mind until I saw the pitch on the final morning.

“I'd consulted all the right people – friends that had played here (Nottingham), guys that I knew very, very well – and they wouldn't give me a bum steer.

“The message that I got was that if you can get through the first three hours it becomes a belter of a pitch to bat on – if the sun comes out.

“Well, the sun was supposed to come out (and it did not).

“My God, it was like a sea fret . . . it was moist out there."

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Marsh also revealed that his selection panel, which also includes Mark Waugh and former chair Trevor Hohns, has held “three or four long selection meetings” at which they discussed scenarios whereby Clarke was no longer available for selection.

They were prompted about doubts over his fitness, particularly heading into this year’s World Cup where Clarke was selected in the 15-man squad despite not having fully recovered from hamstring surgery which meant he missed his team’s opening match against England.

But Marsh pointed out that the 34-year-old, who announced his imminent retirement from Test cricket on the final day of the fourth Test at Nottingham last Saturday, had experienced little or no problem with his troublesome back during this series.

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And he added that perhaps Clarke’s decision to travel by car and not on the team bus for some of the longer road trips in the UK – which has been a cause for criticism over recent days – was possibly a contributing factor to that.

“It might be a little bit more comfortable for him to be in the car and it might just really help him being fit for the next game,” he said.

Marsh also claimed that selfishness was a trait that the current and emerging crop of Test batsmen needed to develop if they were to prevent a repeat of the disastrous batting during this Ashes series that saw Australia bowled out in less than 40 overs at Edgbaston and inside a session last Thursday.

“Everyone says it (cricket) is a team game and there’s no doubt about that, but batting in particular you can be quite selfish as a batsman and still be a hell of a good team person,” Marsh said.

“Being selfish as a batsman seems to me to be not wanting to get out and wanting to occupy the crease longer than anyone else in your team, and those things count in Test match cricket.

“I think our blokes have got to be more selfish.

“They’ve got to say ‘righto, no-one’s getting me out and I don’t care if it takes me all day to make a hundred.

“You’re allowed to bat all day, and I think our longest partnership in that (Trent Bridge) game was something like 18 overs.

“That’s appalling in a Test match, I don’t care what (sort of pitch) you’re playing on.”