Australian great Shaun Marsh ends his roller coaster ride in first-class cricket

Veteran Australian batsman Shaun Marsh has announced his retirement from first-class cricket, a long 22 years after his debut for Western Australia. The left-handed batter has scored 12032 runs off 183 first-class matches played in his career.

Upon his international remarks, Marsh played 38 Test matches for Australia with his first match against Sri Lanka in an away encounter at Pallekele back in September 2011. He has drafted 2,265 runs in his international Test career, recording six centuries and 10 half-centuries.

The veteran batsman appeared last in Test against India in 2019. The match was hosted as the New Year’s Test match between India and Australia which ended up in a tie. His overall contribution to the game was eight runs before Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja dismissed him. 

Coming to his first-class cricket career, Marsh made his debut in the 2000/2001 season. His end appearance came against South Australia, just the previous month. The 39-year-old batter was struggling with injuries during the 2022-23 domestic cricket season in Australia which allowed him to play only one game.

Marsh was made the captain of the Western Australia side for his final first-class Test match. He managed to score 1 & 16 while getting out to Wes Agar’s spell in both innings. Western Australia eventually got defeated by a huge margin in the game at the Adelaide Oval.

Although Marsh didn’t have the dream end to his first-class career, he fulfilled one of his biggest dreams to win the Sheffield Trophy, the last season.

Shaun got a wonderful opportunity to lead Western Australia to flare in the final against Victoria. Now it will be fascinating to see how the Western Australia side performs in the absence of Shaun Marsh.