Feel confident about being consistent at number five, says Mitchell Marsh

Sep 12, 2020

Manchester [UK], September 12 : Ahead of the upcoming second ODI of the three-match series against England, Australia's all-rounder Mitchell Marsh on Saturday said that he feels confident about doing a consistent job for the side at the number five batting position.
In the first ODI, Mitchell Marsh had played a knock of 73 and he helped Australia to post a total of 294/9 in the allotted fifty overs. The visitors in the end managed to win the match by 19 runs against England.
"This format has certainly been the one I've been most consistent in. I take great confidence in that. I don't look up my stats too much but certainly, love this format. I certainly know I'm being given this opportunity again, batting at number five is a role I've done for most of my career in one-day cricket and I certainly feel really confident I can play my role for the team there," ESPNCricinfo quoted Marsh as saying.
"It's not about me going out there and playing every game to try and cement my spot. It's about playing to the best of my ability to make sure I'm contributing to wins for Australia. If you do that, your position in the team takes care of itself," he added.
Steve Smith who had missed the first ODI, will be available for the second as he cleared his concussion test earlier on Saturday.
Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Adam Zampa, and Josh Hazlewood came up with standout performances to hand visitors a win in the first ODI. Marsh and Maxwell had played knocks of 73 and 77 while Hazlewood returned with figures of 3-26 from his ten overs. Zampa had claimed four wickets as well.
"Yesterday I tried to take the situation out of it, the fact we'd lost a couple of wickets, and just try to take it as deep as possible," he said. "Glenn's innings was amazing and really took the pressure off at times, allowed me to just keep batting. It would have been nice to capitalise at the end and get a few more but was rapt with the partnership I had with Maxi to get us into a really good position," Marsh said.
Australia's T20 and ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
Australia and England will lock horns in the second ODI of the three-match series on Sunday at Manchester.