Ashes 2019: Mitchell Marsh Hopes Australia Will Respect Him after His Remarkable Test Comeback

Mitchell Marsh was chosen ahead of Travis Head in the fifth and final Ashes Test. Although his selection raised many questions, he shut everyone with his remarkable performance in the first day of the fifth Test. He took 4 for 35 and restricted England to 271 for 8 at the end of the first day at The Oval. However, his poor form and injury kept him out of the squad and he wasn’t even included in the ICC World Cup squad either.

Marsh, however, jokingly said at the press conference that Australia don’t love him. He further said Australian are too passionate and they want everyone to do well.

“I’ve had a lot of opportunity at Test level and I haven’t quite nailed it but hopefully they can respect me for the fact I keep coming back, I love playing for Australia, I love wearing the baggy green cap. I keep trying, hopefully I win them over one day,” he said.

He changed his diet plans, focus on his fitness over the last six months and changed his lifestyle to be back in the national team. He further shared he wasn’t able to score runs as well.

“I wasn’t making runs – if you bat No. 4 for Australia you need to make runs,” Marsh said. “Last year was a range of stuff, a few things in my personal life. I lost a close friend to suicide at the start of the summer and when things like that happen, I didn’t handle it as well as I could have and that transitioned into my cricket at times as well. I understand everyone goes through tough periods in their life but I certainly didn’t handle it as best I could,” he added.

He did a lot of training and certainly getting success.

“I was certainly at that stage, so I did a lot of work with our sports psych Matt Burgin at WA just about detaching myself from the outcome, working as hard as I can, getting as fit as I can, preparing well and it sort of started from there. I’ve hardly played any cricket since then but that’s what I’ve been doing,” Australia speedster shared.

Marsh has often been considered as a fifth bowler. But he revealed that Australia coach Justin Langer asked him to change the mindset.

“I think in the past my role as a bowler has been to hold an end,” he said. “JL came up to me before the start of play and at lunch time and he just said ‘go for it, attack, bowl the way you want to bowl’, and I was a little bit, not shocked, but it gave me the confidence to go out there and give it everything I had,” he shared.

Mitchell Marsh believed the change of mentality allowed me to bowl a bit more differently. He even shared that he wants to be the best allrounder in both facets of the game. It would be interesting to see how he performs in the rest of the days of the game.