"He's matured more and more as a red-ball cricketer": Allan Border hails Mitchell Marsh ahead of BGT 2024-25 opener

Former Australian skipper Allan Border heaped praise on all-rounder Mitchell Marsh ahead of the national team's first Test of the upcoming five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 series at home. Marsh, a pace-bowling all-rounder with his explosive batting will be one of the talking points of the series against India. In his Test run from 2014-19, Marsh, son of legendary Goeff Marsh, struggled big time, averaging a poor 25.20 and having made just three centuries and six fifties in 55 innings.

However, last year during the Ashes series against England, Marsh returned to the Test side after four years and turned over a new leaf in his career, mixing his aggression with never-seen consistency. In five Tests last year, he averaged 67.50, scoring 540 runs with a century and four fifties. He also starred in Australia's sixth 50-over World Cup win with the bat, scoring 441 runs in 10 innings with two centuries and a fifty.

"He's matured more and more as a red-ball cricketer. There was a lot of white-ball cricket in his Test match play in the past, but I think he's learned to become a bit more of a Test match cricketer. He can let the ball go," Allan Border told Fox Cricket. The 69-year-old further asserted that Marsh is a very good player in the 50-over format but now at the moment he is very good player in the longest format of the game too.

"You've got a long time in the game. He was one guy who liked to get on with it if it was stagnating, he wanted to get on with it to keep the scoreboard ticking. But Mitchell has learned (the drop anchor approach). He is a very good one-day player, but now he's starting to become a very good red-ball cricketer as well," the former cricketer added.

The first Test of the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be played at Perth's Optus Stadium from November 22 onwards. After the series opener in Perth on November 22, the second Test, featuring the day-night format, will take place under lights at Adelaide Oval from December 6 to 10. Fans will then turn their attention to The Gabba in Brisbane for the third Test from December 14 to 18.

The traditional Boxing Day Test, scheduled from December 26 to 30 at Melbourne's iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, will mark the series' penultimate stage. The fifth and final Test will be held at the Sydney Cricket Ground from January 3 to 7, promising an exciting climax to a highly anticipated series.

Squads for the first (Perth) Test:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar.

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc. (ANI)