Mitchell Marsh refuses opening slot in Tests after David Warner's retirement

David Warner's retirement from the Test series after the Pakistan series at home has put a huge question mark on the selectors on who can take the opening slot. The dynamic batter has already started celebrating his last few Test matches with a brilliant century in the first innings of the first Test versus Pakistan. There is still no solution as to who will replace him as an opener even though there are a lot of potential players in the mix. One of those potential players is Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh.

Marsh has also shown that he can dominate the longest format with his aggressive style of batting as well. He has shown that in this Test already with wonderful innings of 90 out of 107 deliveries at a strike rate of 84. This will also not be the first time he opens the innings as he has done it several times in the day format as well. There is no doubt that he can be one of the choices since he has a similar attacking nature just like Warner and puts pressure on the bowlers. However, he has declined the position openly in front of the press.

Reasons for declining the opening slot

Marsh has openly discussed this issue with the press on why he wishes to bat at the number 6 position only saying “How do I answer this without making a headline? For me, I appreciate there’s talk about it and eventually we’re going to need a new opener with Davey leaving, but I’ve worked really hard to get back in this side and for me to look forward to having a role as an opener just doesn’t make sense to me. He further stated, “I love being at number six and in my last four Test matches I’ve really found my way and I guess who I am as a Test cricketer and I’m loving it, so I’m reluctant to change that”.

This is a clear statement from Marsh that he enjoys batting at number 6 in Tests and wishes to continue in that position. This means that Warner’s replacement will still be a mystery to the people and to see who will be the perfect replacement to fill the shoes of one of the most popular batters in cricket. Many people might believe that Marsh would dominate in Tests as an opener but seems to be comfortable at where he is and is still playing some of his best cricket.

It will still be interesting to see who the team and the management choose as a potential long-term opener who can still manage to score runs as consistently as Warner has done throughout his career. After this series a lot they might have to go back to the drawing board and see who will be the man who has enough potential to dominate the longest format and fix his position for a long time.