Whenever a team sheet appears featuring the name “Marsh” these days, you can hear a distant rumbling begin. It gathers pace across the Australian continent, growing in volume and intensity, as the voice of cricket followers swells into a storm of discontent. Bloody Marsh again, is the general tenor. How many times? What dirt does he have on the selectors? And so on, and so on.
Whether the selection in question involves Mitchell, as in the fifth Ashes Test here at the Oval, or his older brother Shaun, who was part of Australia’s World Cup campaign, the response isn’t entirely unfair. Both come from a prominent cricketing family, and both have had more chances at the top level than others who don’t. Whether those two things are related isn’t quantifiable, but there is certainly an impression that they are.
Related: Jos Buttler keeps England afloat after familiar collapse against Australia
Related: Heavy sits the crown of captaincy on Joe Root after ugly half-century | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...