Struggling Marsh in battle for Test place

AUSTRALIAN vice-captain Mitchell Marsh is fighting for his Test future in a tense selection showdown with Peter Handscomb.

Marsh is the slight favourite to retain his Test place, but Australia is yet to guarantee him a spot as it assesses conditions and team balance for tomorrow’s first Test against India in Adelaide.

Opener Marcus Harris and promising middle-order batsman Travis Head are both set to play.

When Marsh left Australian shores at the end of last summer for South Africa, it seemed a formality he would be a routine selection this season after an Ashes series in which he reaped 320 runs at an average of 106.

But after scoring 96 in the first innings of the first Test in Durban in March, Marsh has made only one score above 16 in 11 Test innings.

Marsh can be comforted from his greatest selectionroom ally being coach Justin Langer, who is normally given the team he wants.

But the fact Head and debutant Harris appear to have been locked in ahead of him is a sign Marsh needs to improve on his record of just five scores over 50 in 51 Tests.

Marsh has scored 151, 1, 44, 6 and 30 and taken five wickets in three Sheffield Shield games since returning from the two Tests against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

“After the UAE there is no doubt there are a few question marks over me, so I am just really pumped if selected to get out and play,” Marsh said .

Former Test quick Geoff Lawson says Marsh and brother Shaun Marsh are ‘‘perpetual disappointments’’.

“Hi Geoff. How are you?” quipped Marsh, whose father Geoff played eight Tests with Lawson. “His comments are his comments, his opinion.

“My goal for this summer is to start chipping in with the ball and get a few more wickets for the team.”