North Sound (Antigua), Jun 19 (PTI) Mitchell Marsh is not just a captain but a true leader, Marcus Stoinis said eulogising his teammate but added that the current Australia group is easy to lead with everyone aware of their roles in specific situations.
Marsh has been tasked with leading Australia to their second T20 World Cup title.
“Mitchie is not a captain but a leader. The way he gets the groups together inspires it,” fellow all-rounder Stoinis said on the ‘Unplayable’ podcast.
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“He’s been a leader for a longtime in this group. He has captained in the past at a younger age as well.”
It is not just Stoinis that has lavished praise on the all-rounder, the rest of the team also speaks highly of the ‘Bison’.
Marsh has had a love hate relationship with the fans, who booed him when his performance dropped leading the all-rounder to claim “most of Australia hates me”.
But Marsh witnessed a resurgence last year and has now become a fan favourite. He made his way back into the Test team and starred in Australia’s stunning World Cup win in India. He also performed well in T20s. He was awarded with the prestigious Allan Border medal earlier this year.
But Marsh was perhaps destined for big things given his father, Geoff Marsh was a former Australian ODI captain and World Cup winning coach. Growing up, he was surrounded by the likes of legendary captains Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh and that seems to have rubbed off on him.
The 32-year-old had captained the Australian Under-19 team to the World Cup trophy, back in 2010. He also led Perth Scorchers in 31 matches in the Big Bash League and was captain of the 2017-18 Marsh Cup-winning Western Australian team before graduating to become Australian T20 captain.
Under his captaincy, Australia have entered the Super Eight stage at the ongoing T20 World Cup on the back of an unbeaten run in the group stage.
Stonis feels Marsh has it easy with the group in the West Indies with everyone knowing their roles and functioning like clockwork but the all-rounder is more then capable of being “creative” when required.
“Not taking anything away (from Marsh), I think this group particularly is quite an easy group to lead. We have four best quicks, best spinner in the world and all-rounders. It’s pretty much like clock work, most of us know when to bowl, where to field,” Stoinis said.
Australia have played all their group games in the Caribbean where the pitches can play slow and low, and may turn more as the World Cup wears on.
“There might be need for some creativeness which needs to happen if the wickets become slower turner,” Stoinis said.
