Australian batsman Marcus Harris, on Sunday (October 6), admitted that he has to make a lot of runs in the upcoming Sheffield Shield 2019-20 to be in contention for the next month’s Test series against Pakistan at home after having had a torrid time during Ashes 2019 in England.
In the prestigious Test series, Marcus failed to pass 20 in his 6 outings and even said he had a tough little patch but is still optimistic about his Test spot in Australia squad for Pakistan series.
He believes that cricket turns around and changes too quickly, so he doesn’t have to be Einstein to work out the things, rather he just needs to churn runs out in the upcoming Red-ball competition to be in Test contention.
Having played a crucial role in Victoria’s Sheffield Shield victory last season, the left-hander is looking forward to giving his best shot in the upcoming 118th season of the Sheffield Shield, starting from 10th October between the defending champions and South Australia.
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Last season, Harris became the first player to pass 1000 runs in a Shield season since 2014-15 season of Australia’s domestic First-class competition and now he aims to do the same in the first round of the Shield to keep his place in the national Test squad for the Pakistan series.
Harris told cricket.com.au: “I'm going to have to make a lot of runs, you don't have to be Einstein to work that out. "I'm going to have to make a lot of runs in the first four Shield rounds to keep my spot.”
The 27-year-old further added, “I've been that situation before so it's nothing different for me. I'm just going to have to go out there and churn runs out. We've got four games, all on good grounds, so hopefully, I can put myself in position (to be selected) for the first Test. I have had a tough little patch … but cricket turns around and changes so quickly that I've always got it in the back of my mind that it takes one good inning to get on a roll.”
Meanwhile, Harris admits England's seam-friendly surfaces made it really challenging for him to counter English pace attack during the Ashes series.
He explained, “Just with the seam (movement) it was so difficult. It was a great challenge … in English conditions those guys were very difficult. It was tough personally not to really get away at all. It was just conditions so different to what we play in with the ball seaming so much. There wasn't too much swing, but it was more the seam that was a real challenge and the way that Broad and Archer bowled early on made it a great challenge. It wasn't a great series for us (openers).”
On reactions at his poor scores during the Ashes, the Victorian said: “That always happens with media. If you have a bad little patch, people all of a sudden don’t want to hear anything about you. Then you go all right, you become a better player than what you were. That's always going to be the way.”
Harris signed off by saying, “It (the Ashes) was a great challenge. If I make runs at the start of the season, the rest of that stuff doesn't matter. Last summer I made more runs than anyone else, so I'll just try to do the same again and the reputation will look after itself.”
(With cricket.com.au Inputs)
