Marsh seeks out Rogers to stop nicking

When Shaun Marsh returns to the Australian team in Adelaide next week, it will be the fifth time in as many years he has resumed his Test career after being dropped or absent injured from the XI. As an increasingly patient selection panel and increasingly impatient public sit down to watch, each will have the same question. Does he get it this time?

Empirical evidence that he does is slim. In three Sheffield Shield matches this summer, Marsh has tallied scores of 15, 1, 2, 92, 64 and 33, a total of 207 runs at 34.50. That leaves 17 Australian batsmen ahead of him on the seasons' first-class aggregates, plus two New Zealanders.

In his most recent Test appearance, Marsh failed twice on a seaming pitch at Trent Bridge. His two firm feet and rigid bat edges symbolised the utter failure of the touring batsmen to cope with English conditions. Never mind that he was nervously called up on match morning, or that conditions have been described as uniquely difficult after rain moistened the surface in the 10 minutes before play began - Marsh was the unacceptable face of Australian batting.

"To be honest I've tried to get it out of my mind," he said. "It wasn't a very good Test match - personally and for the team. Getting no runs and losing the Ashes. It couldn't get any worse than it did. I guess you learn from lessons like that, hopefully I've learned some valuable lessons I can take into this next Test match and try and do the best I can for the boys."

The lesson was that Marsh had to change, and fast. There was the anguish of losing the Ashes to England in the most humiliating manner possible. Then he was dropped from the next Test at the Oval. In need of guidance, Marsh sought out Chris Rogers.

Now here was a contrast. Marsh is viewed by most who watch him bat as a talent, and for years, Rogers fought the perception he was an ugly player. Marsh has had a surfeit of opportunities without yet taking them, whereas Rogers got one Test in 2008 then waited six years for his next one. Marsh had just endured one of the worst matches of his life, Rogers was in the middle of his most successful series.

In Northampton, ahead of a county match made near enough to irrelevant by events in Nottingham, Marsh asked Rogers for advice on how to deal with the moving ball in England. More generally, he wanted to know why he always seemed to edge into the slips and Rogers so seldom did. It was a conversation Rogers had been waiting to have.

Taking the younger man to the nets at Wantage Road, Rogers grabbed a bunch of tennis balls and worked on changing the angle of Marsh's defensive blade. For years, Marsh's firm and straight bat had won the admiration of selectors, but its angle from side-on had been a source of great hope for bowlers.

By offering an almost vertical bat to the bowler, Marsh would offer edges great and small, invariably carrying to catchers. Rogers countered that by angling his bat further down, and playing the ball later, under his eyes, Marsh would greatly reduce his chance of offering catchable nicks. He would also likely prosper from edges running along the ground to third man - a tendency often cited as lucky but turned into something like an art form by Rogers and Justin Langer.

Marsh walked away from these Northants sessions feeling like he had unlocked a secret to the game that had eluded him for most of the past decade. It is one shared by numerous top-level batsmen, not least Kane Williamson, he of the near mythical lack of slips catches. Like any change, this one is taking time to bed down, and may explain Marsh's indifferent statistics so far this summer. But he still has Rogers' advice very much in mind.

"Definitely Bucky [Rogers] was really good, over probably the last few months," Marsh said. "During the Ashes, I went away with Buck and just worked on a few little things on my game. He was fantastic to talk to - his record speaks for itself. He's scored so many runs, so if I could learn as much as I could in that last little period in the Ashes I thought it was going to help my game.

"I'm just trying to hit the ball a little bit later. I've worked on a few little bits and pieces. I've felt really good over the past month in Shield cricket and feel like I've got a better game now to hopefully be successful at Test cricket. I've been a little bit inconsistent with my Test career so far, so hopefully I can really take this opportunity now and build some consistent scores. I'm looking forward to that challenge."

When Marsh bats against Trent Boult and Tim Southee under the Adelaide Oval lights, with the pink ball potentially swinging around, there are likely to be edges and lots of them. If they scurry along the ground or fall short of slips, many spectators will throw their heads back and mutter about Marsh's good fortune.

But in the ABC commentary box at the top of the Southern Stand, Rogers will see that as a vindication of their work together, and a sign that Marsh has, at last, begun to make his own luck. Square of the wicket, the selection chairman Rod Marsh and coach Darren Lehmann may notice Marsh's angled bat, and share a look of recognition. Now he gets it!