Quantcast

County wrap: Red-hot Harris blasts another hundred

Aussie Test opener excelling at number three for Leicestershire with his third century of the northern summer, while Travis Head fails again

Marcus Harris continued his superb start to his maiden County Championship season overnight, making a third hundred in his sixth match to help Leicestershire pile on 5-357 against Gloucestershire.

Harris, whose 10-Test career has come in fits and starts since his 2018 debut, plundered 21 fours in his 148 from No3, to make it back-to-back hundreds after his match-winning 185 against Middlesex last time out.

The incumbent Test opener also scored 101 in his third match for the county, with his most recent century making him one of just three batters to record three hundreds already this northern summer in the 18-team competition.

Speaking with cricket.com.au last month, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said Harris was perfectly capable of filling a middle-order spot in the Test side as opposed to the opening position he has played to date.

Such a scenario would put him in direct competition with Travis Head, whose 14 for Sussex against Yorkshire means he has now played six innings for the county this season without passing 20.

"I don't think (Harris) needs to open," Ponting said. "If he shows that he's good enough and scores enough runs in domestic cricket as an opener, then I think he can bat in the middle order quite easily.

"I think (the selectors have) just got to work on who their best player is and if it's Harris, if it's Head, if it's (Moises) Henriques – work out who it is and give them a chance there.

"That's probably just going to come down to weight of runs. Out of those three guys, I think one of them will be batting in the middle."

Elsewhere among the Aussie contingent, veteran seamer Peter Siddle collected 3-76 for Essex against Notts, Marnus Labuschagne broke a run of low scores with an aggressive 44 for Glamorgan in reply to Lancashire's 173 (Michael Neser 3-46 & 17no, Michael Hogan 2-30), while Cameron Bancroft (18 for Durham) and Dan Worrall (1-45 for Gloucester) also turned out for their respective sides, with Ben McDermott still to bat for Derbyshire against Warwickshire.