Melbourne, May 1 (IANS) The Australian cricket selectors have given maverick Mitchell Marsh a big chance to put his career back on track by ignoring his current form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) to pick him in the squad for the ICC Champions Trophy June 6-23.
The younger Marsh brother, who captained Australia to victory in the under-19 World Cup in 2010, was sent home from Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence last July for showing up “unfit to train” after a night on the town, reports ABC.
Marsh was also left out of Perth Scorchers’ team for the final match of their Twenty20 Champions League after a big night out with his brother Shaun and other team-mates in South Africa last October.
Marsh, who is going through a poor IPL, having scored a mere 100 runs from seven matches, however, had an impressive domestic season.
Marsh, who returned to cricket after suffering a hamstring injury early in the summer, returned score 278 runs at 69.50 for Western Australia, and that was good enough for the selectors to slot him in the squad.
Chairman of selectors John Inverarity said the 21-year-old had done enough to be named in the side.
“Mitchell’s domestic season was interrupted by injury but there’s no doubt he has the potential to perform strongly at international level,” Inverarity said.
“We’re confident Mitchell will fulfil the faith we’ve had in him.”
Talented bowling all-rounder Nathan Coulter-Nile has graduated from the Australian Twenty20 squad.
“Nathan is an emerging cricketer as a fast-medium bowler and explosive lower-order batsman,” Inverarity said.
“He is also one of the finest fieldsmen in Australian cricket and the energy he brings to his game is impressive.”
Test team mainstays David Warner, Shane Watson and Mitchell Starc will all get a big opportunity to have a feel of the conditions ahead of the Ashes.
Veteran left-arm paceman Mitchell Johnson will no doubt be trying to show selectors they were wrong not to have picked him for the five-Test Ashes series, starting July 10.
Amongst those ignored for the Champions Trophy are Australian vice-captain Brad Haddin, all-rounders Steve Smith and Moises Henriques, batsman Usman Khawaja and quicks James Pattinson and Jackson Bird.
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