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Aus A vs Ind A – MCG – Marcus Harris ‘pretty well equipped’ to open against India in Perth

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Marcus Harris believes he is ready to go if the selectors call on him to open the batting in the first Test against India in Perth, and feels he is well equipped to handle it after performing well under pressure for Australia A.

Harris, 32, produced a brave 74 on another tough day of batting at the MCG against India A, when Australia A’s next highest score was 35 from No. 10 Corey Rocchiccioli, as the other Test contenders failed to They managed to impress in the final game before. Test team announced.

Australia chairman of selectors George Bailey was at the MCG with Australia’s A team but is yet to confirm to Harris or anyone else who will get the nod for Australia’s Test team.

However, it seems more than likely that both Harris and Nathan McSweeney will be named in an expanded squad that may include 13 players, including a replacement batsman and a replacement bowler.

“They just said I’ll start the first game and we’re not really sure what’s going to happen with the second game. So I don’t know if that was the plan.”

Marcus Harris on the selectors’ communication

Harris was asked after the second day’s game if he felt he had done enough to earn a call-up and was generally pragmatic about it. “I don’t know, it’s a good question,” he said. “I think, externally, obviously this game was developing a lot, which is fair enough. “I feel like I’ve been hitting well, but so have a lot of other people.

“So if they call me, I feel like I’m ready to do it, and if not, so be it. I feel pretty well equipped. I think maybe if I was in this position 12 months ago, “I probably wouldn’t have been able to perform like I did. at the beginning of this season. My results from last year probably said that, so I’m proud of that.”

Harris is the only player in the Australia A team to open the batting in both matches against India A. He opened alongside Sam Konstas in the first game in Mackay with scores of 17 and 36 before opening alongside McSweeney in the second. Harris said the selectors hadn’t told him much in the run-up to either game.

“They just said I’m going to start the first game and we’re not really sure what’s going to happen with the second game,” Harris said. “So I don’t know if that was the plan.”

Harris said the second game had provided some more clues into the selectors’ thoughts, but he was not reading too much into it given his previous experiences with Australia A and the Prime Minister’s XI selection.

“It was probably pretty obvious what was happening,” Harris said. “You’d have to ask them, to be honest. You never know. Like last year, for example, we had the bat-off in Canberra, and they picked Renners [Matt Renshaw] who was batting at three. So yeah, I don’t know.”

Harris said he learned a lot from last summer’s experience, when he entered the home season looking like he was in a race to replace David Warner. This has been evident in his performances, having recorded scores of 143 and 52 in the first Sheffield Shield match of the summer, as well as 63 in a One-Day Cup match and 74 against India A. He also believes that the media and the public scrutiny have not felt more intense.

“No, honestly, it’s not like that,” Harris said. “I think this time I’ve probably accepted it a little more than before. I think in the past I probably tried really hard to avoid it. That probably strengthens it a little more, whereas this I probably took it as it came to me and accepted it as it is. I think I could have said a couple of weeks ago at the Junction Oval that I could probably write all the articles that will be published written in the next two weeks, so none of that is surprising, I think every time you pass. for things more often, you get used to it more, you’re more prepared to deal with them. I probably just have more experience with it.”

Harris has certainly matured with his game. In the past, he might have tried to fight his way to a goal on a surface as treacherous as that presented at the MCG. But the second day only touched a limit. What has been noticeable this season has been his improved ability to rotate the strike and score with control, hitting many more singles and twos than he could have done in the past. He credited his Victorian coach, Chris Rogers, a former Australian Test opener, for imprinting a simple message on him at the start of the season.

“If the wicket is working a little, [he said] You don’t always have to try to get it right by four, try to get it right by two. And it was a simple thing that kind of shocked me a little bit,” Harris said. “I think a lot of times when you do well on terrain like that, you actually spend a lot of time on the other end.”

Harris noted that he needed some luck, as he played and missed a lot and came up one short of the goalie on opening night. He was also extremely lucky when he was not out in the 48th over – he tried to deflect off-spinner Tanush Kotian towards the leg side and the ball deflected and slipped. India A was convinced it had gone over the edge, but the umpire thought it was a pad.

“I hit my deck on the way,” Harris said. “That’s why I stood my ground. Then the referee didn’t call it, so I was like, I don’t know. But then we watched the replay and I think the guys said they’d seen it 20 times and you couldn’t really do it. So I The truth is, I wasn’t sure, but if they had checked it and said you would have hit it and gotten caught. [thought] that seems fine to me.

“It just went my way.”

Alex Malcolm is associate editor of ESPNcricinfo



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