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Scores of 54, 88, 18, 100, 85, 9* and 103* in his last seven international innings have led to whispers that Marsh might be an emergency Ashes option if England’s quicks pose problems

Alex Malcolm05-Oct-2025Last Tuesday in Mount Maunganui, 24 hours out from the first game of Australia’s three-match T20I series against New Zealand, T20I skipper Mitchell Marsh was asked by a New Zealand journalist whether his mind was on the Ashes at all in terms of trying to force his way back into the Test team.”Ha. No,” Marsh said.He giggled again as the press pack paused, perhaps taken aback by the emphatic answer, and no more questions were posed on any topic.Five days later he leaves New Zealand with two player of the match awards from the only two completed games, a player of the series award and the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, after scores of 85 off 43 and 103 not out from 52. The latter was one of his finest for Australia, single-handedly guiding them home on a tricky surface where he looked like he was playing a different sport to every other batter in the game. His first T20I century saw him join Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell, David Warner, and Josh Inglis as the only Australian men with international centuries in all three forms.Related

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In his last seven international innings dating back to the T20I series against South Africa in August he has scores of 54, 88, 18, 100, 85, 9* and 103* and has batted as well as he ever has in international cricket, especially against the pace collection of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Nandre Burger, Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy, Kyle Jamieson and Ben Sears who have troubled some of Australia’s Test batters in the same games.Despite what Marsh says publicly about a possible Test return, which is understood to be in keeping with what he has said privately, his form has done nothing to quell the whispers that have been floating around Australian cricket that Marsh could be called upon as a “break glass in case of emergency” option for the Ashes.It sounds far-fetched, and merely the notion will enrage a large swathe of Australian fans who believe Marsh has had more than enough chances at Test level. But the whispers are real. Chairman of selectors George Bailey had sowed the seeds as far back as April.”I don’t necessarily think that his red-ball career is over,” Bailey said when Australia’s 2025-26 contract list was announced.”I don’t think he was scoring the runs that he would have wanted, or we would have wanted, when we left him out of the Test side. But I still think there’s an incredibly exciting skill-set there with the bat, the way he can rip a game open.”If you look ahead to a team like England, and the way they play their cricket and the way they seem to be framing up their team, I think he’s got a skill-set there that could be helpful.”However, a Marsh Ashes comeback would likely come with a large set of caveats.It would require many of the fears around the form of the incumbent Test top six to come to fruition early in the series. Australia’s batting would have to struggle mightily in the first two Tests in Perth and Brisbane for the possibility to be genuinely entertained. Even then, those struggles would have to be of a very particular variety.Australia’s Test batters would have to be struggling against the pace and bounce of Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Josh Tongue and Ben Stokes in particular.Mitchell Marsh celebrates his stunning comeback century at Headingley in 2023•Getty ImagesIn the 2023 series, England turned to a bombardment of bouncers in the second Test to try and change the course of the series. While unsuccessful at Lord’s, that plan rolled over to the third Test at Headingley where the injection of a fresh Wood at the expense of an aging Jimmy Anderson turned the tide in an instant. Wood took 5 for 34 targeting helmets and stumps exclusively with sustained heat at 145kph plus. His threat at one end helped another fresh man Chris Woakes threaten front pads and outside edges at the other.Marsh not only withstood it, but thrived pounding a run-a-ball 118 in his first Test innings in four years having been called in for the injured Cameron Green. One particular pull shot, from a 146kph Wood bouncer, that sailed over the two men stationed square on the rope and landed 20 rows back among the Headingley crowd is seared in the memory of the Australian team, as is the silence that followed it from a packed Headingley crowd that had been raucous due to England’s morning success.Marsh produced similarly thunderous cross bat shots that landed among a more sparse Bay Oval crowd on Saturday night in a brutal take down of Henry, Duffy, Sears and Jimmy Neesham while Test batters Travis Head and Alex Carey succumbed on a spicy surface that had spent two full days under cover.There is a thought that if the Ashes turns into another bouncer-fest, and Australia’s batters aren’t handling the heat, then there is no one better equipped than Marsh to provide a counter-attack in the vein he did in Headingley.No one runs quite as hot or as cold as Marsh. Right now he is white-hot. This time last year he was entering a run of ice-cold form that saw him return red-ball scores of 9, 6, 6, 47, 9, 5, 2, 4, and 0 that eventually led to him being left out of the fifth Test against India in Sydney for Beau Webster.It is incredible that Marsh, with a Test average of just 28.53 from the same number of innings, 80, as Sir Donald Bradman had in his career, can still be such an alluring prospect at his best when his mean has been clear to see over an 11-year Test career.Mitchell Marsh is strong against the short ball•Getty ImagesMarsh is unlikely to face a red ball before the start of the Ashes. Family and fishing will most likely be his priority over the brief time off after New Zealand ahead of leading Australia in a three-match ODI series and five-match T20 series against India that runs up to the first Test.Western Australia are also unclear on whether Marsh will be available to play Sheffield Shield cricket in November following the India series ahead of the BBL. Marsh also has not bowled a ball since the Boxing Day Test last year having missed the Champions Trophy in February due to a back injury. He has said his bowling remains “offline” until further notice and there is a chance he plays the rest of his career as a specialist batter.Whether the glass is broken in case of an emergency or not, Marsh’s form at the top of order in Australia’s T20I side solidifies their plans heading towards the World Cup.Australia had won their previous two T20I series against West Indies and South Africa without major contributions from the captain, with the powerful middle-order stepping up. In the absence of Inglis, Maxwell and Green in New Zealand it was Marsh who carried his team.It bodes well for when Australia get their best available together for India and Sri Lanka in February and March. Their unrelenting power hitting has won them nine of their last 10 completed T20Is. Winning in spite of a reckless and probably needless wobble in Saturday’s third T20I in Mount Maunganui will only reinforce that the high-octane freewheeling style, branded in Marsh’s image, will be what they stick to when the pressure is ramped up in the World Cup.Whether it’s needed, or called for, should the Ashes pressure reach fever pitch before then, remains to be seen.

Shubman Gill, who suffered a neck injury during the first India vs South Africa Test in Kolkata, has been ruled out of the second Test in Guwahati, which starts on Saturday. Rishabh Pant, who led in Kolkata after Gill left the game, will be India’s captain.Gill had travelled to Guwahati on November 19 after spending time under observation in a Kolkata hospital, but has now been ruled out of participation in the game. Gill “will head to Mumbai for further assessment of his injury,” the BCCI said in a statement on Friday morning.As reported by ESPNcricinfo on Thursday, it was understood that Gill is at risk of further neck spasms if he plays so soon after recovering. He has been advised more rest. The development could also impact his selection in the ODI squad for the three matches against South Africa starting on November 30. The squad for that series is expected to be picked on November 23.Related

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With Gill out and no replacements named, India have to choose one of B Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal and Nitish Kumar Reddy as his replacement.Gill was admitted to hospital after the second day of the Kolkata Test after he retired hurt having faced only three balls in India’s first innings. On the morning of the third day, the BCCI said he would take no further part in the Test. India went on to lose the match by 30 runs after being dismissed for 93 in a chase of 124 on a pitch with uneven bounce. Gill had missed a Test against New Zealand in October 2024 due to a neck spasm too.On Thursday, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had said in a press conference that the team would not risk playing Gill if there was any chance of the spasm recurring.”He is definitely recovering really well,” Kotak said. “Now, the decision [whether to play him or not] will be taken tomorrow evening. The physios, doctors, they will have to take a call that, [even] if he is fully recovered, [during the] game, he should not get that spasm again.”[…] If we have a, guarantee that, very likely, he won’t have this issue again, then he will play. If there is a doubt, then I am sure, he will take rest [for] one more game, because it won’t be helpful to the team [if he plays].”

Contrasting sides meet in spin-friendly conditions as Test cricket returns to Gaddafi Stadium

Danyal Rasool11-Oct-2025

Big picture

This is a series of opposites and inversions. South Africa, the side that won the World Test Championship this year, visit Pakistan, the team that finished bottom. Two sides historically known for their legendary fast bowling prowess will look to manufacture alternate means of taking 20 wickets, with the conditions set to favour each team’s less decorated spin bowlers. South Africa will look to complete a record-extending 11th straight Test win, while Pakistan have triumphed in just three of their previous 12.Even the venue is a bit incongruous for the occasion. Despite Test cricket returning to Pakistan after a decade-long hiatus in 2019, the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore hasn’t seen much of it, with just one five-day game played here, three years ago. All told, this will be just the second Test since 2009 to be played in Lahore, with the Gaddafi Stadium regaining its original position in Pakistan after the stadium was knocked down and rebuilt ahead of the Champions Trophy this year.South Africa are in a somewhat unprecedented position, beginning a world title defence. An ICC trophy was elusive enough for the side to put any notions of defending one into uncharted territory. But a credible defence will have to go through this awkward test in Pakistan. They will do so without the services of their talismanic captain Temba Bavuma, whom his stand-in Aiden Markram termed “irreplaceable”. As importantly, they will miss Keshav Maharaj for the first Test, needing the internationally less experienced Simon Harmer, Senuran Muthusamy and Prenelan Subrayen to step up.Related

• Pakistan prepare for South Africa with precious little first-class cricket

The hosts are in the early stages of an experiment with the surfaces they prepare, one that has brought them results, but also left games heavily dependent on the toss. Pakistan have won three of the four home Test matches played under this system, but three of four have also been won by the side batting first. Pakistan have three finger spinners in their line-up which make their intentions plain, while Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan return to the side after white-ball absences. In theory, Pakistan have a soft enough draw to make qualification for this edition’s final in two years a realistic prospect. But two Test matches, such as the ones coming up, are a long enough time in Pakistan cricket, let alone two years.

Form guide

Pakistan: LWLLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
South Africa: WWWWW

In the spotlight

Perhaps it says more about Pakistan than it does about Noman Ali, but the man who celebrated his 39th birthday last week is the most important player for the home side this week. With Sajid Khan struggling to overcome a bout of flu, the left-arm spinner needs to take on even more responsibility on the kind of surface Pakistan will prepare almost exclusively suited to his strengths. Noman last played red-ball cricket in February, but he has taken 36 wickets in his last four Tests, making full use of conditions. Sajid just about picked up the other half, but in his absence, Pakistan will ask even more of the man who has entered his 40th year.Ryan Rickelton is still finding his way as an opener in the longest format•Associated Press

Ryan Rickelton has 638 runs in 19 Test innings, and is still finding his way as an opener in the longest format. Nearly half of those runs, though, came in one mammoth innings earlier this year against Pakistan, when he amassed 259 as South Africa ground Pakistan into the Newlands dirt. There is an unbeaten hundred against Sri Lanka, but aside from that, he has yet to cross 42 in 17 other innings. As South Africa begin their defence and Rickelton takes guard in conditions he has not faced before, it remains to be seen whether his happy memories against Pakistan can overcome his otherwise modest Test record.

Team news

Pakistan’s biggest headache is the potential unavailability of Sajid Khan as he battles flu. The offspinner did rejoin the Pakistan camp, but Shan Masood said a decision on whether he plays will be taken last minute.Pakistan (possible): 1 Abdullah Shafique/Imam ul Haq, 2 Shan Masood (capt) 3 Kamran Ghulam 4 Babar Azam 5 Saud Shakeel 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 7 Salman Ali Agha 8 Noman Ali 9 Khurram Shahzad 10 Sajid Khan/Abrar Ahmed 11 Asif AfridiSouth Africa captain Aiden Markram kept his cards close to his chest regarding the eleven, though it is inevitable the visitors will also go spin-heavy.South Africa (possible): 1 Aiden Markram (capt), 2 Ryan Rickelton, 3 Wiaan Mulder, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 David Bedingham (wk), 6 Kyle Verreynne, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Prenelan Subrayen, 9 Senuran Muthusamy, 10 Simon Harmer, 11 Kagiso Rabada

Pitch and conditions

The previous week saw unseasonal rains and cool temperatures in Lahore, but that weather system has been washed away. The Test will be played under hot October sunshine. That should help break the surface, almost certainly spin-friendly, up even quicker. It was kept under cover today. The winner of the toss will almost certainly bat first.

Stats and trivia

• South Africa have won 10 Test matches on the trot, their longest streak in history
• Babar Azam is 251 runs away from becoming the 5th Pakistan batter to 15,000 international runs. Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Javed Miandad are the only players to have achieved that feat.

Quotes“It’s a good opportunity for us to start against the defending champions. It will be a good yardstick for us to play against them, especially if we can get a good result against them.” “Preparation has been good. We had a camp back in South Africa where we tried to simulate conditions as best as we could. There was a lot of focus on spin play and our spinners getting used to the ball spinning a lot compared to South Africa.” South African captain Aiden Markram reveals what the visitors tried to do to replicate the conditions they are likely to encounter

Interview by Andrew Fidel Fernando15-Nov-2024Rangana Herath, the most successful left-arm bowler ever, was spin consultant in New Zealand’s set up when two left-arm spinners, Ajaz Patel and Mitchell Santner, played big roles in the 3-0 whitewash of India this month. Herath spoke about his experience on working with the bowlers on this history-making tour.Before New Zealand went to India, they had two losses in Sri Lanka. Let’s talk about what that was like.
I was very impressed by their team environment. When you lose, you tend to talk a lot about mistakes. But in this team, what we talked most about was what we learned, how we adjusted to conditions, and how to take the good things we did to India. That’s what we did after the series defeat in Sri Lanka. Although we lost, there weren’t many players who were that upset. I think there’s a lot to learn from that.Everyone – the coaches and the players – were on the same page. Rather than looking too big-picture, everyone was engaged with the match situation at hand and looking to find the best solution to the problem in front of them.Related

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In that second match in Sri Lanka, Glenn Phillips was the only spinner who took wickets – three. How did that tour affect the spinners?
When you go to Galle, some teams might think: “The pitch turns there, so the spinners have to do everything.” But this team didn’t have that mindset. They trusted their skill and put the emphasis on how accurate they needed to be. Sometimes spinners put unwanted pressure on themselves when they see a turning pitch. It was all about accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. Whether it spins or not, that’s really important. But we did talk about things like angles of attack, and release positions, and how you’d vary them. But mostly we talked about accuracy.What kind of advice did you have as they went to India?
So already there was an emphasis on accuracy. But one thing we knew was that India batters are quite aggressive in their approach. So the thinking for the spinners was around how to be smart when that happens. On the tactical front, what we talked about was how to set those in-out fields that close off the attacking options for batters.Did you look at each batter and plan fields?
Whether it’s a batting-friendly field or a bowling-friendly one, the first 20 to 24 balls is going to be tough for a batter. It’s hard to discern the pace of the pitch, and sometimes you don’t know what is happening. So the main thing we planned was around those 20 balls and employing the right fields during that period. For each batter we made some minor changes to our overall strategy. That was what a lot of the talk going into India was about.”That’s what happens when you put the ball in the right spot”: Ajaz Patel got Shubman Gill bowled with one that went on straight on day three in Mumbai•AFP/Getty ImagesIn the Bengaluru Test you didn’t need the spinners at all. In the second innings, because of the nature of the pitch, were the spinners asked to operate as holding bowlers?
No. Because we had batted and scored 400-odd and by then the pitch was helping spinners a bit. Again, the talk was about putting close-in fielders and shutting off those boundary options.Ajaz Patel got two wickets and those were very important. He got [Yashasvi] Jaiswal, and that was key because he is a batter who attacks a lot. He comes forward and what we saw was, his strength was hitting over mid-off and mid-on. We talked to Ajaz about how to change up his line and his pace, and he did that perfectly. [Patel had Jaiswal stumped for 35.] Then he also got Rohit bowled off the edge. And then Glenn Phillips got Virat Kohli’s wicket. So although the spinners didn’t run through the team, they got them a really important start.When you went to Pune and saw that pitch, what did you talk about?
We saw very quickly that it was going to turn and that we needed to play three spinners. Everyone was on the same page about that again.Mitchell Santner hadn’t been very successful in Sri Lanka, What did you think of his bowling at that point?
I think he had mostly played white-ball cricket for the past few months, and because of that, he was bowling white-ball lengths. When the pitch turns, you need to bowl fuller. Although Santner wasn’t bowling short, on these kinds of pitches he becomes more effective when he pitches it up a bit more.But then the biggest difference between Galle and Pune was that he varied his pace in Pune. That meant he had more leeway with his lengths and he could pitch it up or bowl it slightly shorter, and both could be effective. He understood the pitch really well.The Bengaluru Test was played on a seamers’ track but New Zealand’s spinners had their say in the second innings. Glenn Phillips got Virat Kohli to nick one behind•Idrees Mohammed/AFP/Getty ImagesFrom the time he started, I thought, “He’s going to bowl well here.” It’s hard to predict someone getting five or more wickets. But he was impressive from the outset in that game [with 13 wickets].Did a lot of the spinners’ plans work out against India’s batters, or was it more about building pressure?
I think we built a lot of pressure with spin. When batters have that attacking mindset, the fields that were set by Ajaz and Santner were really good. The bowlers take ownership of those fields and the captain and others are aware of what the plan is.What did you see as the strengths of each of New Zealand’s main spinners – Santner, Patel and Phillips?
They bowl three different lengths between them. Ajaz isn’t very tall – he and I are about the same height. He tries to toss the ball up over the batter’s eyeline and bowl a little fuller – between 4 and 4.5 metres from the stumps.Santner because of his height has the option to bowl a greater variety of lengths, on that pitch in Pune especially.Glenn has his own rhythm. He gets to the crease quickly, and because he bowls a lot of white-ball lengths, he knows how to set a field to that as well. We stressed that they should stick to their strengths. Glenn had a lot of protection. It wasn’t quite a one-day field, but he had more protection than the others.Going into the last innings of that Pune match, India needed 359. How did you approach that?
We thought that it was a big target for them to chase, so we had a lot of confidence, especially because our spinners had bowled well in the first innings. My experience is that even 200 is a big total in a fourth innings, so we were confident.Mitchell Santner was “bowling white-ball lengths” going into the India series, but he soon fixed that and ended up with 13 wickets in the Pune Test•Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty ImagesAgain, Santner and Ajaz varied their pace well. I think that was the difference between New Zealand’s bowlers and India’s.Ajaz didn’t get a lot of wickets in this match, though it was a helpful pitch. What do you think was the reason for that?
On any surface, not everyone is going to get wickets. Ajaz is the main spinner in this team, but sometimes when someone [else] is getting wickets, you have to change your approach also. Sometimes when one bowler is getting wickets, the other person builds pressure. I think Ajaz is someone who looks at what role he has to play in any situation. He’s got a lot of knowledge about cricket, and I think he adapted his game to what he needed to do at the time. At the time the attacking option was Mitchell Santner, and there was understanding there.Going into the third Test, New Zealand had already won the series. There must have been some serious confidence in the team going to the Wankhede?
A lot of players who play Test cricket want to win a Test in India. As someone who played for Sri Lanka I had that dream too, but I wasn’t able to get there. The New Zealand players were also like that. After we won the second match, they never got overconfident. It was more about it being a fresh start, and that this was a new surface, and that we had to adapt again. That was the mindset and that was fantastic. There was no guarantee about winning that third one as well.Ajaz got a lot of wickets in the third Test. Talk us through his first spell.
Ajaz is super interesting, because in the previous Test he’d played at the Wankhede, he’d taken all ten wickets in the first innings, and four wickets in the second. The difference between the previous pitches and this one is that on the Wankhede, you have the red soil, and when it turns there, it turns very sharply. Ajaz has a lot of revolutions on the ball, and so almost all his balls were very effective. Because he tosses it up, he especially gets that very sharp turn.In the last innings India had to get 147. You’ve defended a lot of low scores yourself. What did you say to the bowlers?
I had been talking to them in general about the fourth innings being incredibly tough for batters. Even when we had had to chase 107 in the fourth innings in the first match, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had made it difficult. So we talked about 147 being a big score to chase. The emphasis was again on accuracy and relying on the help from the surface, which was turning.”Ajaz has a lot of revolutions on the ball, and so almost all his balls were very effective. Because he tosses it up, he especially gets that very sharp turn,” Herath says of New Zealand’s lead spinner in the series•Surjeet Yadav/Associated PressAfter Matt Henry got Rohit out, Ajaz was getting big turn, but he bowled Shubman Gill with one that didn’t turn – that’s what happens when you put the ball in the right spot. We had the trust that the pitch would do the rest if we did the right things.Ajaz is in many ways a similar player to you. What did you speak to him about?
A lot of our talk was about how to be effective whether or not the pitch offers turn – how to adjust your angles of attack, how to change your release positions, how to bowl well, even in New Zealand. All the spinners in this group had an open mind, and that came out of them already having a lot of trust in their skills.What was the feeling like in the dressing room when those wickets were falling?
I was in the dressing room and downstairs during that period, and when Rishabh Pant was batting well, I also did have a doubt about whether they could win.But winning 3-0 was a huge joy. It was like when I was playing and we beat Australia 3-0 [in Sri Lanka in 2016]. It’s something that happens very rarely.Did you learn anything from being part of this series?
Players were very accountable in this environment. When things went wrong, players accepted responsibility and they looked for solutions. That was really impressive. As a coach, being part of an environment like that was really valuable. It was a boon to my coaching career as well.

Former Australia batter Lisa Keightley has replaced Charlotte Edwards as the head coach of Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). MI were without a head coach after Edwards left the role to take over as the England Women’s head coach earlier this year, after coaching MI for the first three years of the WPL.”It’s an honour to join the Mumbai Indians, a team that has set the benchmark in the WPL,” Keightley said in a release. “The culture of excellence and care is something I deeply admire. I look forward to working with this talented group to build on our success and continue inspiring on and off the field.”Keightley, a two-time ODI World Cup winner with Australia in 1997 and 2005, has had several coaching roles in recent years, with England Women, Australia Women, Delhi Capitals (WPL), Sydney Thunder (WBBL) and most recently guiding Northern Superchargers to the Women’s Hundred title less than a month ago.