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“It’s another good opportunity for me to play well and try to cement my place in the team”
Australia opening batsman Shaun Marsh has announced that he is “pretty flexible” with where he bats since he believes he can have the same impact at the top or lower down the order.
“I’m pretty flexible in the batting order,” Marsh said. “I can bat down the order if that’s the role they want me to play. Over the next few days I’ll get an understanding of whether I’m in the team or what sort of role they want me to play. It’s another good opportunity for me to play well and try to cement my place in the team…there’s lots to play for.”
With the 2015 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup just over a year away, Marsh is looking to cement his place in Australia’s ODI squad during the upcoming series against England.
“I did spend a fair bit of time out of the team,” Marsh admitted. “I had to get a lot of runs in one-day cricket over the last 12 months to get an opportunity again.
“I feel like my one-day form has been pretty good. I’ve just got to carry that into the team now and put scores on the board if I get my chance.
“I’ve performed well at stages when I’ve played for Australia so that gives me confidence as well. I’ve just got to be a bit more consistent. If I do get an opportunity, I’ve just got to grab it with both hands. There’s a lot of good players around Australia at the moment who are scoring runs and applying pressure on us guys who are in the team. It’s important to take your opportunities and hopefully I can do that over the next three games.”
Even though the 30-year-old conceded that he is miles away from representing Australia in Test cricket, he still feels that he has plenty of time to make a name for himself, especially after the amount of success opening batsman Chris Rogers and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin have had over the last couple of months.
“Oh definitely,” Marsh said when asked if he had the potential to represent Australia in Test cricket. “You look at a lot of the players now who are playing international cricket, they are all over 30 and they’re playing really well. We’ve got a lot of players in our team as well who are world-class players over 30 so there’s still lots of time. But I guess you’ve just got to take your opportunities when you are this sort of age. There’s lot of younger good players coming through.”