Marsh opens up on summer from hell

MITCHELL Marsh has sought solace in a new hobby — surfing — as he fights to put the most hellish summer of his life behind him.

But the much-maligned cricketer has learnt he is never safe. Not from the sharks, but the sledgers.

There he was, a million miles away from the thoughts that have been “eating him up inside” over the past months, when he was recognised by a fellow board rider past the breakers. “What you doing out here, mate?” Marsh replied in his genial way that he was new to surfing, and asked: “Have you got any tips for me?”

The answer came back sharp as a razor: “Yeah mate, how about you catch more waves than you score runs?” And he paddled off. Marsh admits “it was actually a pretty good chirp” and he is a man who has had precious else to smile about in recent times.

The 27-year-old started the summer as Australian vice-captain. He finished it facing the reality that his World Cup dream is all but over and his Ashes hopes are hanging by a thread.

“It’s something that’s kept me up at night basically every night for the last month,” Marsh said. “It’s been the toughest six months of my life, really.

“I was part of the World Cup squad in 2015. I obviously didn’t play the final, and I remember in the change rooms that night it was my goal to make sure I’m in this World Cup.

“But realistically now I’m a long way back when it comes to the World Cup team. I’ve tried not to focus too much on it because it was eating me up.”

And cricket stresses haven’t been the only cause of Marsh’s insomnia.

He was hospitalised with a serious bout of gastritis (which cruelly robbed him of his only World Cup audition), and then two weeks ago he had his testicles operated on after severe bleeding — from a nasty blow at training — led doctors to fear he had suffered a rupture.

The painful and worrying episode cost him a critical opportunity to rediscover his red-ball form, but thankfully nothing more.

“I absolutely want to have a family one day,” he said. “So it was certainly a bit of panic at one stage when I was sitting on the operating table.”

Australia has picked an unchanged squad for its one-day tour against Pakistan later this month, meaning there are no more white-ball chances for Marsh before the World Cup squad is picked — a brutal blow for the allrounder who is a proven matchwinner in the ODI format.

Marsh’s axing for the first Test of the summer against India was also a major shock given he was vice-captain of the team, was fresh from a Sheffield Shield hundred and, notwithstanding a lean tour of the UAE, there was clear evidence the West Australian may have turned a corner with his batting at international level. When he was given his one and only Test of the summer at the MCG on Boxing Day, Marsh admits he wasn’t in the right headspace to perform. “I had a lot going on upstairs.” But you won’t hear him complain. “Look mate, the selectors have been fantastic with me all the time and they’ve shown a lot of faith in me over a long period of time,” Marsh said.

And he doesn’t need his army of critics on social media — or on the beach — to tell him that.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shocked, but I wasn’t angry. I had built myself up so much and wanted to play so badly,” he said.

Marsh must make some big scores for Western Australia in the final two Sheffield Shield matches, starting with Tasmania tomorrow if he is to leapfrog Marcus Stoinis as the all-rounder for the Ashes in England.

“I’ve had times where I’ve really questioned myself [but] I’ve got the perspective that this is a game of cricket, and I know it’s going to turn at some point if I keep doing the right things,” he said.