Australia / England

Shaun Marsh is back

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Shaun Marsh (public domain by Dave Morton)

It occurs to us that people are far more likely to say “Shaun Marsh is back” than use the contraction “Shaun Marsh’s back” when referring to his return. This rather undermines an excellent joke we were going to make. Never mind. We’re sure we’ll one day get an opportunity to deploy it using someone else’s surname.

In any case, the headline should more accurately read “Shaun Marsh is rumoured to be back” because it’s one of those news stories that’s based on the word of “a source”.  Apparently Tim Paine is also back – utterly bizarre as he hasn’t scored a first-class hundred in over a decade and hardly ever keeps wicket.

Marsh’s inclusion in an Australia team is always welcome from this website’s perspective. We’ve described it as ‘heart-warming’ before now.

The heart-warmth is brought by the innocence and naivety behind such a decision. In the face of all that has happened, these gnarled, wisened selectors still retain extraordinary optimism. It’s rather inspiring.

Like us, you may have something in the back of your mind that says Marsh’s lifelong efforts to try and ensure all his averages remain in the high 30s could end up undermined should he get to play more matches on Australia’s straightforward unchallenging Test pitches.

History disagrees. Marsh’s spectacularly Marshish Test average of 36 from 23 Tests actually drops to 34.23 for his 10 Tests in home conditions.

We’re really looking forward to a spectacular hundred in the first Test followed by extended payment of his duck tax throughout the remainder of the series.

Similar deliveries:

Default ThumbnailShaun Marsh and his duck tax Australia might again be poor enough that they’ll feel like they have to pick Shaun Marsh Default ThumbnailShaun Marsh wants to play straighter

14 comments

      1. Issues around middle stump. There you go. Got there.

        What’s the opposite of Ashton Agar?

        Ashton Turner.

  2. All but confirmed. Excellent. Hopefully this will compensate for them launching in someone in Sangakkara-esque form at the top.

  6. The Aussie press came up with the stat that coach Darren Lehmann has scored a first class century more recently than Paine, which I quite liked.

  7. Despite the absence of a hover caption, I did notice that it is a picture of Shaun Marsh’s back, which is a sort-of pictorial joke.

    Some of us do take pleasure in such things, KC, thank you.

    Also helpful to know that Shaun Marsh is number 43, so we can call out, “come in number 43, your time is up” in the direction of the radio before turning over again and going back to sleep.

  9. Why drop Nevill? It has to be something off the field. His first class batting average is almost 10 higher than Paine. Did he do anything to piss off the selectors recently?

    1. My understanding is that he is simply isn’t Australian enough. The selectors pretty much admitted that Wade wasnt as good at batting or keeping, but he had Nevill easily beaten in “being a mouthy prick”

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