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Marsh won't risk riding red-hot form into Shield season

In-form allrounder Mitch Marsh will stick to a diet of sixes and white-ball cricket with the T20 World Cup just around the corner

Given the rare batting form he's currently enjoying, it would have been understandable if Mitchell Marsh opted to reprise his bludgeoning century in today's season-opener by backing up in the Sheffield Shield fixture starting in Adelaide on Friday.

But the 29-year-old, who was the stand-out performer in Australia's most recent overseas limited-overs tours to West Indies and Bangladesh, believes he will be best served by sticking to white-ball formats ahead of next month's T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman.

As a result, he will hand over captaincy of Western Australia's Shield team to his older brother, Shaun, and return to Perth tomorrow to maintain his focus on the shortest format rather than try and transition in and out of red-ball cricket.

Marsh clubbed 111 from 124 balls in WA's thumping 78-run win over South Australia in today's Marsh One-Day Cup match, further building on his reputation as Australia's pre-eminent allrounder ahead of the World Cup.

Since July's series against West Indies in the Caribbean, Marsh has clubbed 375 runs at an average of 37.5 and a strike rate of 124 per 100 balls faced in the T20 format and has taken that form into the start of the home white-ball season.

But despite the welcome return to competitive cricket after compulsory quarantine upon arriving back in Australia last month, Marsh will forego a first-class fixture in the hope of maintaining his golden limited-overs form.

"I've just tried to mirror my preparation from the last tour, and that was solely a Twenty20 focus," Marsh said after today's one-day win in Adelaide.

"This is white-ball cricket and fairly similar, and obviously I want to be playing as much cricket for Western Australia as I can but I'm representing Australia in a World Cup and it's a huge tournament.

"So I want to be in my best form going into that.

"To be brutally honest, I've just practiced hitting sixes and that's all I really did before I went away (to the Caribbean) and it seemed to work for me.

"I'll keep doing that, and I guess when I eventually play some red-ball cricket that will have to change but I'm just enjoying training hard and preparing for games so nothing will change too much."

What has changed for Marsh is his off-field circumstances, having become engaged to girlfriend Greta Mack last week.

He has attributed some of his recent batting output to being "in a good place in my life" and having gained clarity in his role within Australia's limited-overs set-up from skipper Aaron Finch and coach Justin Langer.

Marsh remains hopeful he can continue in the number three berth he filled for all-but one innings of the recent international campaigns.

But he acknowledges Australia's personnel for the World Cup will be markedly different given the return of key batters Steve Smith and David Warner as well as fellow allrounders Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell.

"I'm hopeful to be up there (in the top-order), but we've got so many good players," he said today.

"I mean Steve Smith has held that role for a fair while now and he's a fair player that guy.

"Whatever role I get, whether it's batting at number three or floating through that middle-order like we do with all those guys in there, I'm going to be really clear on my role and do it to the best of my ability and hopefully help Australia win games of cricket."

He's not the only member of Australia's limited-overs set-up who is benefitting from major off-field developments of late.

Alex Carey, who captained the ODI leg of the Caribbean campaign due to Finch's absence through injury, continued his impressive 50-over form with an unbeaten 128 from 106 balls in an otherwise disappointing day for SA.

Carey plays lone hand with classy ton in defeat

Carey had blasted an unbeaten 130 from 80-odd deliveries in a one-day trial game in Adelaide earlier this month, but missed the final days of internal practice matches last week due to the arrival of his and wife Eloise's second child, a daughter Clementine.

He was one of a number of Australians who had battled on the spin-friendly pitches of Dhaka during the challenging five-game T20I campaign against Bangladesh but has relished the opportunity to return to more familiar conditions at the start of the home summer.

As well as the return to family life, which has become doubly as hectic in the past week.

"I feel really confident, I felt confident over there (in Bangladesh) but it was just really difficult conditions," Carey said this evening.

"I had a couple of weeks at home, then last week I was running around chasing after a three-year-old (son Louis) and a newborn.

"So there's some nice distractions away from the field and it's nice to go home and not worry about cricket for a little bit.

"Sometimes touring it's all you do, sit in your hotel room and go back and think about cricket.

"I feel like my one-day cricket is going okay, so the confidence was still definitely there.

"I feel really energised coming back into this group, so I'm excited for the first part of this season and for us, as a group, it's about bouncing back from that little hiccup early in the season."

WA thrash Redbacks to open Marsh Cup season in style

SA's season opener was a harsh reality check after an aggressive off-season recruiting campaign had raised hopes of a change to the fortunes that saw them finish bottom of both the One-Day Cup and Shield ladders last summer.

Carey's was a lone hand that shone like a beacon in the gathering gloom and against the failure of the Redbacks top-order, with none of his teammates reaching 20 in pursuit of a rain-reduced target of 316 from 43 overs.

The only other SA man to have opened the innings and batted unbeaten through a completed one-day innings was ex-Test player Greg Blewett who scored 101no of his team's 193 against Queensland at Adelaide Oval in 2000.

"It was a disappointing day after a big pre-season and a few fresh faces, it's not the way we wanted to start," he said casting an eye to Friday's Marsh Sheffield Shield match against the same opponents.

"We're disappointed but excited to play again in two days' time."

2021 Men's T20 World Cup

Australia's squad

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Dan Christian, Nathan Ellis, Daniel Sams

Australia's matches

Oct 23v South Africa in Abu Dhabi (2pm local time, 9pm AEDT)

Oct 28v Qualifier A1 in Dubai (6pm local time, 1am Oct 29 AEDT)

Oct 30v England in Dubai (6pm local time, 1am Oct 31 AEDT)

Nov 4v Qualifier B2 in Dubai (2pm local time, 9pm AEDT)

Nov 6v West Indies in Abu Dhabi (2pm local time, 9pm AEDT)

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL 2021 ICC T20 WORLD CUP SCHEDULE

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SQUADS FOR ALL 16 TEAMS

How the teams are grouped

Round 1

Group A: Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Namibia

Group B: Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Oman

Super 12s

Group 1: England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, A1, B2

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, B1, A2