Marsh to open with Head in T20Is for 'foreseeable future'

Australia's T20I skipper Mitchell Marsh has confirmed that he will be opening the batting alongside Travis Head in the format for now. Marsh was Australia's No.3 in the format since 2021 and the move also paid off with the allrounder putting in a man of the match performance in the T20 World Cup final that year.

While he has continued to bat in that position in the next two editions as well, the 33-year-old is all set to lock himself at the top of the order alongside Head. Even though Glenn Maxwell opened recently in West Indies in the Caribbean in Head's absence, the left-hander will also be returning to his favoured spot.

"It'll be myself and Heady (Travis Head) up the top for the foreseeable future," Marsh said in Darwin ahead of the three-match T20I series against South Africa. Obviously we've played a lot together, got a great relationship, so (we'll) start there. As a group leading into the World Cup the messaging has been about requiring guys to be flexible."

Marsh's calls for the batting order to be flexible was evident during the recent 5-0 drubbing of the West Indies where someone like Mitchell Owen seamlessly transitioned into the middle-order despite making a mark on the T20 circuit at the top of the order in recent months. More importantly, Australia's flexibility also saw Tim David smash a stunning 37-ball ton in that series batting at No.5 in one of the games. That has certainly given the 2021 champions a new option to try and promote David up the order on a consistent basis.

"We've spoken about it, we saw that in the Caribbean, that he (David) came in earlier than he would normally," Marsh said. "His skill set is made for that. The more balls he faces, hopefully the more games he wins us."

On his own progress in terms of bowling, Marsh admitted that he will continue to feature only as a batter for now but hasn't ruled out a return to bowling duties in the future. "For me the bowling is currently offline, but it's certainly not offline forever, at this stage it will be series by series, we've got plenty of options," he admitted. "We've got 15 games to the World Cup so we will keep working on the style we want to play, make sure our guys are enjoying every bit of it and win the series."

The first T20I against the touring South Africans will be played in Darwin on Sunday (August 10) with the venue also hosting the second fixture before the teams move to Cairns for the final T20I and the opening ODI. The last two ODIs will be held in Mackay.