SUMMER OF CRICKET Mitch’s failures can’t be excused

MITCH Marsh’s twin MCG failures with the bat were enough for one extremely seasoned cricket scribe to declare “enough is enough”.

The Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell, are cricket’s low hanging fruit when the wider fan base decides to wield the axe after a Test match loss.

It’s highly likely Mitch, the younger of the two, won’t survive the selector’s swing of that axe for the SCG Test, despite serving his purpose with the ball when the wicket played dead on Boxing Day.

But the numbers just don’t paint any sort of picture that could allow coach Justin Langer to persist with a number six batsman so short on runs amid a batting order which remains a work in progress.

Repeating that Marsh’s average in his past 10 Test innings is under eight, and that through his 31 Tests he has passed 50 just five times is like screaming in space.

And you can have a workhorse holding up an end with the ball, but if he then also takes up a batting spot, and can’t get runs, his value as a seam-up trundler diminishes markedly.

Last summer’s Ashes, where Mitch managed his maiden Test century, albeit in a runfest of a series, and then an opening 96 in South Africa proved a false dawn.

But selectors, and seemingly his teammates too, were blinded by the light created by Marsh’s time in the sun.

Beyond just his standing in the pecking order when it comes to selection is the alarming notion that Australia’s best minds saw so much in the younger Marsh that he was appointed Test vice-captain.

When skipper Tim Paine hurt his finger in Adelaide, and speculation turned to who would take over, given he’s a deputy, it could have been Mitch Marsh, and he wasn’t even in the team.

When Justin Langer took over as coach he resolved to adopt an AFL-style leadership model, in which the players voted for their preferred captains and vice-captains.

Mitch Marsh is a ripping guy, happy go lucky and hasn’t been deterred by the stream of detractors who have zoned in on what they believe has been an armchair ride through the all-rounder’s 31 Tests.

Even this post-match Marsh analysis from captain Tim Paine poses the question as to why he’s an anointed Australian leader.

“We just need to make sure he’s at his best more often than not …. that the gap between his best and his worst gets smaller all the time.”