Justin Langer bats for Shaun Marsh’s spot in the ODI squad

Justin Langer bats for Shaun Marsh’s spot: Australia’s Coach has backed out-of-form Shaun Marsh’s place in the ODI side.

Having scored 14 runs in two Test matches at an average of 3.50, just when the ODI spot of Australia’s Shaun Marsh was being questioned, coach Justin Langer has lent his support to the 35-year old southpaw.

In the seven Test matches that Marsh has played in 2018, he has scored 317 runs at an average of 24.38 and a strike rate of 42.60, which further speaks of his lean run in Test cricket.

That being said, Langer still advocated for Marsh’s spot in the ODI squad because of his couple of centuries in England earlier this year. In Australia’s last ODI assignment, Marsh remained their highest run-scorer, scoring 288 runs in five matches at an average of 57.60 and a strike rate of 102.85.

“‘SOS’ has obviously had a poor series and he knows that, you can see it in his face, he knows he had a poor series,” Langer said of Marsh’s poor series.

“On merit, he has to play the one-dayers. In his last five one-day internationals for Australia, he’s scored two hundreds. You’ve got to be fair and you’ve got to reward people for performance,” Langer added regarding being fair to Marsh for his performance in England.

For anyone coming on the back of a dismal run, playing domestic cricket to be among the runs is the most primary advice. Speaking on the same, Langer was quoted, “On the flip side of that, by playing the one-dayers he might not play [Sheffield] Shield cricket.

“Having said all that, to me runs are the currency of value, whether you’re making them in T20 cricket or one-day cricket or Sheffield Shield cricket or Test cricket, the only currency of value are runs. That’s just the truth of it so there’s a balancing act there.”

Read some of the recent Twitter reactions on Marsh: