Scorchers back ‘heart and soul’ Mitch Marsh to blossom

Mitch Marsh has been described as the heart and soul of the Perth Scorchers as the star allrounder attempts to regain his mojo following his Test axing.

Marsh’s Test future hangs in the balance after he was dropped for Australia’s series-deciding win over India at the SCG.

The 33-year-old averaged just 10.42 across the first four Tests of the series, and he has now been jumped in the pecking order by Tasmanian Beau Webster, who is set to be a key player in the upcoming two-Test tour of Sri Lanka.

Marsh returned to Scorchers duties on Tuesday night, and he was out LBW for a golden duck in his team’s four-wicket loss to the Melbourne Renegades at Optus Stadium.

The result left the Scorchers nursing a 3-4 record and needing to win at least two of their last three games to have a chance of making finals.

Marsh will play the rest of the regular season with the Scorchers, and teammate Jason Behrendorff feels the man dubbed ‘Bison’ will prove to be a valuable weapon.

“He’s almost the heart and soul of this team – West Australian through and through,” Behrendorff said.

“He loves playing for the Scorchers. We love having him back.

“He missed out tonight, but his energy in the field is great, and it’s just nice to have his smiling face.

“I saw some highlights on Instagram the other day about him hitting 100 off 60 balls.

“Those are the sorts of things that he can bring.

“And you never know, he might even bowl for us at some stage as well. So it could be an exciting package if it all pans out.”

Marsh looked underdone during the Test series, with a back niggle limiting his bowling capabilities.

Behrendorff praised Marsh for putting his hand up to play for the Scorchers. “Huge credit to Mitch as well, because he could have easily said, ‘Look, I’m just keen to have a couple weeks off and not play’,” Behrendorff said.

“But it speaks to his character and the way he wants to go about his cricket (that he wants to play).”

Perth’s past two games have gone down to the wire, and they’ve lost both of them despite being in winning positions.

The Sydney Thunder needed 21 runs off the final seven balls in their game against Perth on Saturday, and they got the job done with a final-delivery boundary.

Then on Tuesday, the Renegades were in all sorts of trouble at 4-10 after five overs before chasing down Perth’s total of 8-147 with two balls to spare.

“I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily concerning, it’s more frustrating to be honest,” Behrendorff said.

“We talk about always taking the positive option, and that’s something that we continue to do, and it just hasn’t quite worked out the last couple of games.

“We’ve been so successful over a long period of time playing this way, so certainly no panic stations.

“Probably seven or eight times out of 10, we’re on the right side of it, and that’s why we always get such a good crowd here.”

The Scorchers face the Sixers in Sydney on Saturday and the Sydney Thunder two days later, before taking on the Adelaide Strikers at home.