Mitchell Marsh

Marsh is the second son of Geoff Marsh and younger brother of Shaun Marsh, both of whom have played for the Australian national side. He is cousin to West Coast Eagles player, Brad Sheppard.

He was raised in Perth, Western Australia, where he attended Wesley College, and made his senior debut for the state team at the age of 17, becoming the youngest person to play in the Australian domestic one-day tournament.

Marsh made his debut for the Warriors at the age of 17 in February 2009 in a Ford Ranger Cup game at Bunbury. He became the youngest ever player in an Australian domestic one-day game and Western Australia's youngest debutant for 70 years.[3] In April 2009, he was given the opportunity to play for Australia's Under 19s squad against India, in Australia.

Marsh was handed the captaincy for the 2010 U-19 Cricket World Cup. Under his leadership Australia won the tournament,[4] Marsh having a successful tournament scoring 201 runs, including a match winning 97 in the semi-final against Sri Lanka. Marsh was drafted to the Deccan Chargers for the 2010 IPL.

Marsh was selected by the Sahara Pune Warriors who were coached by his father, Geoff Marsh for US$ 290,000 in the IPL Auction 2011. He played in five matches, scoring a total of 50 runs and taking 7 wickets.[5]

He is a right-handed all-rounder who bowls medium-fast (averaging 130 km/h ) deliveries, but his pace has risen steadily in 2015 to fast-medium (140 km/h average) , Marsh has additionally played for the Pune Warriors India and Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Playing for Australia A against India A in July 2014 at Allan Border Field, Marsh scored 211 runs batting seventh in Australia's first innings, his first double century. He and Sam Whiteman, who scored 174 runs, put on 371 runs for the seventh wicket, an Australian record and the second-highest seventh-wicket partnership recorded, behind the 460-run record set by Bhupinder Singh and Pankaj Dharmani during the 1994–95 season. The previous Australian record, set by Queenslanders Cassie Andrews and Eric Bensted, had stood since the 1934–35 season.[6]

In October 2019, Marsh broke his bowling hand after punching a wall, following his dismissal, during a Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania. As a result of sustaining the injury, which was anticipated to take 6 weeks to heal, Marsh was forced to miss the start of Australia's Test summer.[7]

It was announced during February 2020 that he had joined Middlesex for the 2020 Vitality t20 Blast competition.

He made his Test match debut for Australia against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates on 22 October 2014.[8]

In September 2011, he was named in Australia's Twenty20 squad to tour South Africa.[9] Later, when Brett Lee withdrew due to injury, he was added to the Australian One Day International squad as well.[10]

In October he made a spectacular début for Australia in the second Twenty20 match, scoring 36 runs including four sixes, three of which were hit in the final over of the Australian innings.[11]

In August 2014, he scored 89 runs against Zimbabwe in first match of the Tri-series at Harare Sports Club. He batted at no. 3 and added 109 runs for the fourth wicket with Glenn Maxwell at more than 12-an-over, with Marsh also having contributed to partnerships of 47 and 33 with Aaron Finch and George Bailey.[12] His knock of 86* against South Africa at Harare was nominated to be one of the best ODI batting performance of the year by ESPNCricinfo.[13]

Bowling in the second match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, Marsh took 5 wickets, helping Australia record a 111 run win over England.[14]

His maiden ODI century came during the fifth ODI against India on 23 January 2016 at SCG.[15]

Despite his lack of form as a batsman, on 15 February 2016, Marsh became the second Australian bowler since Jason Gillespie to dismiss Brendon McCullum in both innings of two Test matches.[16][17] On 20 February 2016, Marsh, at gully, took a one-handed catch off the bowling of James Pattinson, but was called back for no-ball.

Marsh was dropped from the Australian Test side after the first Test of the 2016–17 series against South Africa.

For his performances in 2016, he was named in the World ODI XI by ICC.[18]

Marsh found his way back into the Australian test side for the 2017 series against India. He played two more tests before he fell injured. Late in the year, he replaced Peter Handscomb in the third match of 2017-18 Ashes series being named as a bowling all-rounder, before going on to score his maiden test century. His first innings score of 181 was 1 run shy of his brother Shaun's career best score of 182.

In March 2018, Marsh was fined 20 percent of his match fee and given one demerit point for using offensive language during the second Test match between Australia and South Africa, after being dismissed by Kagiso Rabada.[19][20] The following month, he was awarded a national contract by Cricket Australia for the 2018–19 season.[21][22]

Cricket Australia named Mitchell Marsh as cover for Marcus Stoinis, ahead of Australia's 2019 Cricket World Cup match against Pakistan on 12 June 2019.[23] Stoinis was ruled out of the fixture due to an injury, with Cricket Australia waiting to see if he's ruled out of the rest of the tournament.[24]

In July 2019, he was named in Australia's squad for the 2019 Ashes series in England, but was not selected for the first four tests of the series.[25][26] In the fifth and final match of the series, Marsh took his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket, taking 5/46 in the first innings, despite playing in a loss.[27]

In April 2020, Cricket Australia awarded Marsh with a central contract ahead of the 2020–21 season.[28][29]

Marsh was also a talented Australian rules footballer early in his career and represented Western Australia at the 2008 AFL Under 18 Championships.[30]

• Mitchell Marsh at ESPNcricinfo
• Mitchell Marsh's profile page on Wisden