Marsh will instead bat at No.3 where has been dominant in T20Is over the last couple of years but he may slide further when Smith returns for the India series and the World Cup that follows the tour of South Africa, although Australia is hoping to be fluid with their top order depending on their needs with Marsh’s power in the 10-over powerplay keen to be utilised at times if the surfaces require it.
“There’ll be potentially a few moving parts with our squad throughout these five games, I’m guessing it’ll be the same as South Africa,” Marsh said on Wednesday. “It’s a heavy schedule, building to the World Cup. So we’ll have certain guys batting in different areas, but I’ll start at three.”
Australia’s other team combinations likely include playing seven batters, three quicks and one spinner, or playing eight batters and just three specialist bowlers, with four allrounders batting in the top eight provided Marsh, Green, Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis are all fit to bowl to make up at least 20 overs of bowling.
Australia XI for first ODI vs South Africa: David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood