No phone call for “comfortable” Marsh

The 37-year-old is arguably the most in-form batsman outside the Test squad having pounded three Sheffield Shield hundreds for Western Australia this summer.

Marsh even got the tick of approval from Australian coach, and selector, Justin Langer who said you should “never discriminate against age” and called the left-hander’s run-scoring “elite”.

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West Australian coach Adam Voges also said Marsh, who played the last f his 38 Tests in January 2019 against India, hadn’t retired from international cricket.

But Marsh, who will captain the Melbourne Renegades against the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash on Saturday in the absence of Aaron Finch, is content that his time in the Australian line-up has probably passed by.

“There was certainly no phone calls and I wasn’t expecting one either to be honest,” Marsh said on Friday.

“There were a few funny videos going around, I got a few from my mates back home. But there was certainly no phone calls from anyone.

“I’m 37 now, I haven’t played for Australia for a few years. I’m pretty comfortable with where I am, playing well for the Renegades over the next six weeks then getting back to WA and finishing off the season.”

But while he Marsh doesn’t expect to get back to the Test team, there are still new things for Marsh to experience in cricket.

He has captained WA in all forms, but has never skippered a T20 side in 187 games at both domestic and international level.

Marsh needs to find a way to help the Renegades bounce back from a horror last-start loss when the red team was bowled out for just 60 as they tried unsuccessfully to get a new 10-over bonus point.

That loss has been “put to bed” but Marsh didn‘t rule out doing the same thing again.

“Sometimes these things happen in T20 cricket. We learned a lot of lessons,” he said.

“Hopefully we don’t have to do it again. It’s a unique situation now, you can go for those points. It just didn’t work out for us.”

Marsh suggested a young player would move up the order to take the place of Finch opening the batting, with 18-year-old Jake Fraser-McGurk an option.

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