Mitch Marsh won’t be bowling anytime soon. The Australian white-ball captain will focus on solidifying his top order batting instead. With only 15 games to go before the T20 World Cup, this is getting important.
Marsh said he’ll be Travis Head’s permanent opening partner until the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka next year. That starts with the T20I series against South Africa.
He missed the Champions Trophy ODI tournament in Australia in 2025 due to a recurring back issue he had during the summer at home.
Marsh and Head have never opened together in T20Is but have done so in ODIs. In eight partnerships they have an average of over 50 and score at over 12 runs an over.
In Darwin on Friday, Marsh told reporters, It’ll be myself and Heady at the top for the foreseeable future. We’ve played together a lot and have a great relationship, so we’ll start there.
Mitch Owen has emerged and Cam Green is back in the West Indies and Tim David hit a 37-ball hundred in Basseterre so Marsh and the Australians have options for any situation that may arise.
Marsh’s own T20I record as an opener for Australia is not great. He’s scored 98 runs in six innings at 16.33. He’s been much more successful at number three with 1,276 runs in 40 innings at 37.53 and a strike rate of 142.6.
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His recent form at the top of the order in franchise cricket has been good. In the 2025 IPL he scored 627 runs for Lucknow Super Giants at 48.23 and a strike rate of 163.7.
Since David Warner retired after the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, Australia has tried several players as openers including Marsh, Head, Mattew Short, Maxwell and Jake Fraser-McGurk.
Marsh didn’t reveal the rest of the playing XI for the first T20 against South Africa but did confirm discussions are happening about Tim David’s batting position. The team is thinking about where to play him to get the most out of him.
Australia T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa
South Africa T20 squad: Aiden Markram (c), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Nandre Burger, George Linde, Kwena Maphaka, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Nqaba Peter, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Prenelan Subrayen, Rassie van der Dussen
