Mitchell Marsh has recovered from the ankle injury he sustained in March this year and is in India as captain of Australia A for the two four-day matches against India A starting 2 September in Bengaluru.
For the second successive year, Mitchell Marsh spent at least five months on the sidelines after sustaining a major injury. A shoulder injury in March last year had kept him out of action for nearly seven months and had forced him, by his own admission, to bowl “powder puffs” on his return. Then, an ankle injury in March this year, one that required surgery, kept him out of Australia’s tour to Zimbabwe.
Since that successful surgery, though, Marsh had been bullish about his fitness. In July, he had said he would be fit by the time Australia fly to the United Arab Emirates to play Pakistan in two Tests and three Twenty20 Internationals in October. His appearance in India puts him on the road towards that goal, and the 26-year-old, who has 4049 first-class runs to his name, is “glad to be back”.
“I have had my fair share of injuries to come back from, so you just depend on your past experiences on the day and get on with your job, get the rehab done as soon as you possibly can,” Marsh told reporters on Saturday, 1 September.
“It (his return to the middle) has been a long way off – five months – [but] fortunately for Australia, we haven’t had that much cricket compared to what we usually have, and I haven’t missed a lot of cricket.”
Marsh’s first assignment, a four-day match against India A, begins on Sunday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, and how he goes about his game over the coming two weeks will be crucial both for himself and Australia.
