Marsh Century Proves Selectors Right: Ricky Pointing

All-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who was drafted into the first XI for the third Test at Perth in place of Victoria’s Peter Handscomb who fell out of form justified the selectors’ decision by playing a magnificent unbeaten knock of 181 runs alongside his skipper Steve Smith who registered a double hundred. On that note, former Australian skipper Ricky Pointing feels that Marsh’s debut Test century has once again vindicated Australia’s bold selectors.

Notably, Australia’s National Selection Committee was under the scanner for picking the likes of Cameron Bancroft, Tim Paine and Marsh’s older brother Shaun at the start of the summer, but with the third Test on its way, the selectors have fairly come out as the winner.

Pointing believes that Marsh’s knock was more about instilling the self-belief rather than answering his critics.

“That’s the thing, he would’ve felt that the opportunities he’s had before he hasn’t quite capitalized on and now that he’s been given this opportunity he’s grabbed it with both hands and I hope it’s the start of something really special for him.  There has been a lot of ‘noise’ about Mitchell Marsh and his selection back in the team again. Have the selectors made the wrong or the right call? I think it’s been proven again they’ve made the right call,” Pointing was heard saying to cricket.com.au.

Pointing further feels that Marsh was a bit of nervous going into the game as he didn’t bowl very well; however, since he has gone out in the middle with the bat everything was pretty much from the middle.

“Some of the striking and how clean and pure the striking has been today, this could be the start of a really long and successful international career now. It seems like he’s unlocked something within himself and he can go and play with a bit of freedom and he now knows he’s got the game to succeed at Test level, which is really important,” Pointing further stated.

Smith, on the other hand, was magical as usual as he registered 1000 plus Test runs in a calendar year for the fourth consecutive years. As Pointing said earlier, the England seamer had no clue how to dismiss the Aussie skipper. Smith registered his highest Test score on the process of scoring his second double hundred.

“You look at the other better players in the world; Virat Kohli is on a pretty high pedestal but then you look at Joe Root and Kane Williamson, as far as I’m concerned those guys are nowhere near as good as Steven Smith and I’ve said that for a long time,” Pointing further added.

Going into detail about Smith’s batting, Pointing mentioned that Smith’s wagon wheel suggests that he has scored boundaries almost all around the park and the way he is batting he looks like he will bat forever.

“Imagine him back in the day when there were Timeless Tests he would’ve just batted forever!” Pointing signed off.