Jackson Barrett: With bat or ball Mitch Marsh not bringing enough to justify Sydney selection

The wild ride Mitch Marsh has taken West Australian fans on across the past two years is running out of steam. Supporters in his home State, desperate to see him do well, revelled in the all-rounder’s stunning century after returning to the side in last year’s Ashes series and loved every bit of the summer campaign that won him an Allan Border Medal. He might have been that award’s most popular winner. But a lean run of form now means Marsh would be lucky to take his place in next week’s Sydney Test. This has been the most stable cricket team in the world under Andrew McDonald and chairman of selectors George Bailey, but they did make the bold call to drop Nathan McSweeney for the Boxing Day Test and were treated with instant rewards. Have they worked up an appetite for change now? It’s a tempting one to make, particularly with Beau Webster waiting in the wings. Marsh has had just one double-figure score from his last nine if you include back-to-back failures in a Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania on top of this Test series. His preparation for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was interrupted and even when he told reporters he would bowl days out from a four-day match, he played as a specialist batter. He was clearly hampered in Perth and has bowled just 13 overs since then. In India’s first innings, he looked benign with the ball and created one half chance from his seven overs to finish with 0-28. Even when Webster was added to the Test squad for Adelaide, McDonald and Pat Cummins were adamant Marsh was fit to bowl as many overs as they would need him to. But in Melbourne, he was only used deep into their rotation when Virat Kohli and Yashashvi Jaiswal and then Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar were wearing the first choice bowlers down with significant partnerships. Webster was the best player in the Sheffield Shield last season, was strong the season before that and had started this one well. He is the clear frontrunner to replace Marsh, if they make a call on him, particularly with Josh Inglis now injured and sent home from the squad. The funky call would be to go without an all-rounder and Cummins did say pre-series they don’t budget for the overs of a fifth bowler. But Webster is in good form with the ball, will offer the 10-15 overs per innings that Marsh hasn’t been able to and could even bowl spin if the SCG wicket turns.