The new third man

Don Bradman. Neil Harvey. Clem Hill. Ian Chappell. The catalogue of men who have held down the No.3 position for Australia is a who's who of the batting elite. Bradman aside, the one man who stands at the top of that list is Ricky Ponting, who scored nearly 10,000 runs batting there over 15 years.

Ponting took over as the permanent first drop a decade ago, and during that time seemed as likely to bat at No. 4 as Glenn McGrath. But things change. Ponting is no longer the captain, nor the team's most in-form batsman. When he slipped down the order in Colombo in September, it was not intended to be temporary.

Shaun Marsh was the new No.3, part of a long-term plan made by the captain Michael Clarke. That is a supreme vote of confidence in Marsh, who until the trip to Sri Lanka had only once toured with the Test squad, as a replacement for the injured Phil Jaques in India in 2008.

When he was named to play in Sri Lanka, there were criticisms of his record, mostly centred on his modest tally of six first-class centuries in a decade-long career. But in the past couple of seasons, Marsh had taken the next step up.

His state coach Mickey Arthur last summer declared Marsh the equal of AB de Villiers as the most talented batsmen he had coached. de Villiers is the world's No.2-ranked one-day international batsman and has peaked at No.5 in the Test rankings.

Arthur's words didn't seem so exaggerated when Marsh, 28, produced a wonderfully calm 141 on Test debut in Pallekele. There he had replaced Ponting, who had flown home for the birth of his child; in the next Test in Colombo, Marsh stayed at No.3 and knocked up another 81.

Now, for the foreseeable future, Marsh is the man who will pad up when the innings starts, ready to walk out and join one of the openers, Phillip Hughes or Shane Watson. For the first time in a decade, Ponting can get ready at his own leisure.

"It is very surreal," Marsh said this week, ahead of next Wednesday's Cape Town Test. "It's a huge honour to bat No.3 for Australia in Test cricket. I'm looking forward to that challenge and trying to cement it now. It's been a lot of fun so far, [but it has also] been a lot of hard work.

"It's a great opportunity. I'm looking forward to having the support of the guys like Ricky and Pup [Clarke] and Watto [Shane Waston], what they've shown me gives me a lot of confidence."

Marsh warmed up for the two-Test series against South Africa with 57 and an unbeaten 73 against South Africa A in Potchefstroom this week, in conditions as challenging as anything he's likely to encounter in Test cricket. The pitch had such variable bounce that batsmen didn't know whether to go forward or back, and Marsh was one of several men struck on the helmet by a bouncer.

But he battled on. He found the gaps with perfection, drove safely along the ground and rarely looked like making a mistake. After the match, Watson spoke of how he admired Marsh's mix of defence and attack.

Of course, few international cricketers have been exposed to the Test arena for as long as Marsh, who travelled with the Australian squad as a child when his father Geoff was the team's coach. Marsh junior would practice his strokes in the change-rooms while everyone else was watching the game.

One of his heroes from that era was Justin Langer, another left-handed top-order batsman from Western Australia, another man whose primary focus was on protecting his wicket, but was rarely bogged down. Now Langer is Australia's assistant coach, and has worked with Marsh on developing a Test-match technique.

"Growing up I admired guys like Justin Langer and Ricky," Marsh said. "Steve Waugh was a guy who, growing up and being in the same change rooms as him was pretty special. Those guys were pretty much my idols growing up.

"Alfie [Langer] has been fantastic. Ever since Sri Lanka, when I got picked in the Test team, I've worked hard with JL on my batting. He's certainly helped me out a fair bit. There were a few little areas I had to improve on and we got into the nets and fixed them up. He's been fantastic to work with. Just with my stance and things like that, just minor things that I had to fix up and put a bit of oil in there."

Not that much oil was required. In his past five first-class outings, Marsh has made three half-centuries and a hundred. Now the challenge is to keep the runs flowing against Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and the legspinner, Imran Tahir.

Marsh enters the series with big shoes to fill, but there is no doubt he is prepared. He's been playing with the big boys all his life.