Shaun in no-man’s land

Marsh doubts Test future despite ODI form

SHAUN Marsh is uncertain whether he will ever win an Australian Test recall and says he is “trying not to worry about it too much’’ as he sets his sights on continuing his dominant white ball form.

The maligned Marsh has responded to being dumped from the Test squad for the twomatch series against Sri Lanka with 54 and 131 in the one-day series against India and has been Australia’s form ODI batsman in the past 12 months.

“I’m not too sure;’’ the 35year-old Marsh said of his Test prospects as the Australian team left Adelaide for Melbourne for the final match of the ODI series against India with the series tied at 1-1.

“I have just got to focus on playing some really good white ball cricket and then see what happens.’’

Marsh was dumped from the Test side after enduring a horror 12 months in five-day cricket.

Since making a brilliant 156 against England in Sydney in January last year, he has scored just 348 Test runs at 18.31, with just one half-century and 10 single digit scores.

But he is Australia’s best one-day bat, with four centuries in his past eight innings.

His 131 against India was his equal second-best, behind only the 151 he thumped against Scotland in Edinburgh in 2013.

Asked why he had been so good at scoring against the white ball and so poor against the red one, Marsh said: “That’s a good question, I'm not too sure.

“My Test stuff for the past 12 months has been really disappointing, so I’ve just made a conscious effort in this series to go out there free in my mind and to play my way and I’ve got to continue that now.

“I’m just trying to keep things as simple as I can out there, trying not to put too much pressure on myself and just prepare well.

“If I do that it gives me every chance to play well out in the middle.’’

Western Australian Marsh is averaging 42.32 in 62 ODI’s and just 34.31 in 38 Tests.

Marsh was philosophical about his Test axing.

“Obviously, it was disappointing but at the end of the day I just didn’t score enough runs,’’ he said.

“You are there to score runs and I didn’t.”

Australian coach Justin Langer praised Marsh for his attitude after his superb knock at Adelaide Oval on Tuesday.

“I thought Shaun Marsh’s innings was absolutely brilliant,’’ said Langer.

“He’s turning into a great one-day international player.”