Langer feels for 'out of form' Marsh

New Zealand Star (ANI) Sunday 5th February, 2012

Australian batting coach Justin Langer has said he sympathizes with the beleaguered Shaun Marsh who has been struggling with poor form lately.

Marsh has been dropped from the Australian one-day international team and will now play for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield in an attempt to regain his confidence and Langer believes it could be a blessing in disguise for him.

Langer said there is no technical glitch in Marsh's batting but he just needs to keep working hard to get out of this bad form which has seen him scoring five ducks in the last eight international innings.

"You really feel for him because you know how hard he is working and you know he spent that time on the sideline with injury, which put him back a bit," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Langer, as saying.

"Then he's come back into a big Test series, his first in Australia, so automatically you put an extra bit of pressure on yourself because you want to show the Australian public you can bat."

Langer said even the greatest of batsmen faces such a bad phase in their cricketing life.

"You miss out a few times and then you start thinking about needing to make some runs so the pressure increases. It's a horrible cycle to get into and even the greatest players go through it," he added.

Marsh has not faced more than 20 balls in an international innings this summer, leaving him no place other than the nets to search for confidence and could barely manage 17 runs in his four Tests against India.

"In a lot of ways, him going back to shield cricket this week, perhaps away from the glare, might just help him relax and start hitting the ball again," he further added. (ANI)