Australia captain Mitchell Marsh has stated that he and Travis Head will open the batting for the “foreseeable future” in order to secure a crucial combination for the T20 World Cup the following year.
Marsh was promoted to No. 3 ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup, and his player-of-the-match effort in the final helped Australia win their first title.
Now captaining the T20I side, the 33-year-old confirmed he will remain at the top of the order after opening in all five matches against the West Indies last month — a role he had taken on only once prior to the Caribbean tour.
Ahead of the three-match T20I series against South Africa, Marsh told reporters on Friday, “It’ll be myself and Heady up the top for the foreseeable future.”
“Obviously we’ve played a lot together, (we’ve) 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,” he added.
Marsh and Head have an incredible record as an ODI duo, scoring 282 runs in five innings at an incredible 70.50 average, despite not yet opening together in T20Is.
Australia has experimented with a number of openers since David Warner retired after the T20 World Cup last year, including Matthew Short, Glenn Maxwell, and Jake Fraser-McGurk.
The T20 World Cup will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka in February next year.
