Top 5 bizarre choices by Australian selectors in recent times

#4 Swapping between Mitchell Marsh and Hilton Cartwright

Mitchell Marsh’s spell on the sidelines was a brief one

After losing the first two Tests against South Africa last December, the selectors made some wholesale changes to the Test squad and this included omitting Mitchell Marsh, who was in a barren run of form. The bowling all-rounder had barely made any significant contribution at no. 6 to be retained.

They replaced him with Hilton Cartwright by the time Pakistan had come and they even handed the newbie a debut. But after one Test, where he scored 37 in the only innings he batted, the selectors decided that he was a misfit. When the team for the Indian series was named, guess who was back? Mitchell Marsh.

They chose to ignore Cartwright after barely having half a look at the all-rounder. Instead, the discarded Mitchell Marsh, who had done absolutely nothing in the period away from the Tests squad, was recalled.