Marcus Harris (cricketer)

Harris began playing first-class cricket for Western Australia in the 2010–11 summer. His maiden first-class century came in just his third match, when he made 157 against Queensland.[1][2] This made him the youngest Australian to score a first class 150, breaking a 115-year-old record set by Clem Hill.[1][3] Harris played semi-regularly for Western Australia over the next six years, and was even named man of the match in the 2014–15 Sheffield Shield final for scoring 81 and 158 in his two innings.[1] Harris played more than 40 Sheffield Shield matches for Western Australia and scored more than 2,000 runs for the team, but he'd only kept a batting average of 28.43 and scored just four centuries in that time.[1][4] Harris also played for the Twenty20 team the Perth Scorchers, playing 14 Big Bash League (BBL) matches to score 192 runs at an average of 19.41.[5]

Harris had a particularly poor 2015–16 season. In the Sheffield Shield he had mixed results, scoring a century but only totaling 274 runs at an average of 27.40, and his BBL form was woeful with just 69 runs from 6 innings.[5] His performances for the Western Australian teams frustrated coach Justin Langer, who said he was "mediocre with flashes of brilliance".[4] In Australia's national List A competition, the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup, Harris wasn't even chosen to be in Western Australia's team at all. He was instead picked up by the young Cricket Australia XI.[5] At the end of the season Harris left Western Australia to play for Victoria.[4][6]

The move to Victoria proved to be very successful for Harris. In December 2016 he was the leading run-scorer in the 2016–17 Sheffield Shield season with 409 runs at an average of 68.16.[7] Victoria made the Sheffield Shield final, in which Harris scored a century and was part of a Shield final record-breaking opening partnership of 224 runs with Travis Dean on the first day.[8][9] Harris credited his newfound form with the move to Victoria, saying that the Victorian system suited him better and it was useful to have more experienced players around him than he had had in Western Australia.[7]

In the absence of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft from the Australian Test team following the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, Harris gained his first opportunity to play Test cricket for Australia. In a Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales in October 2018, Harris helped Victoria to recover from a poor start of 2/6 with an unbeaten 250, the best score of his first-class career. This innings put him into contention for one of the vacant spots at the top of Australia's batting order.[10][11] In the first four matches of the Sheffield Shield season, he scored a further two half-centuries and averaged 87.40.[12] After 25 first-class matches for Victoria, Harris had scored five centuries and averaged 47.58, and as a result of his improved consistency he was selected in Australia's Test squad for the first time.[13]

Harris was first selected to join the Australian team ahead of the 2018–19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.[13] According to Harris, he received a text message from now Australian coach Justin Langer saying, "Welcome to the brotherhood, you little bastard".[13] Harris and Langer both publicly denied media speculation that there was bad blood between them after Langer's comments when Harris had left Western Australia.

Let me squash this straightaway - Marcus Harris is like my little brother. I've known him at Scarborough Cricket Club since he was about 10 years old. Did I say [he was] mediocre with flashes of brilliance? Yeah I did, because that's what he was. That's the truth, look at it. ... What he's done [since leaving WA], to his great credit, is he's become a really consistent opening batsman with flashes of brilliance.

— Justin Langer[14]

Harris made his Test debut on 6 December 2018, opening the batting alongside his Victorian teammate Aaron Finch,[15] the least experienced pair to open the batting for Australia at Test level since the 1950s.[16] He had his baggy green cap presented by Michael Hussey. Harris played in all four matches of the series against India, but was unable to cement his spot. He scored 256 runs, including two half-centuries, at an average of 36.57,[17] and he was Australia's most consistent batsman in the 2–1 series loss,[1] but he wasn't able to score a century in any of the matches.[17] Harris then under-performed in the subsequent series against Sri Lanka, potentially putting his place in the Test team at risk for the upcoming 2019 Ashes series.[1]

Harris finished off the season playing for Victoria in the remaining matches of the 2018–19 Sheffield Shield season. In a match against Queensland he had innings of 95[18] and 174 to push his case,[19] and then on the final day of the regular season he scored 65 runs against South Australia to take his season total up to 1,024 runs. In doing so, he became the first person to score 1,000 runs in a season for Victoria since Chris Rogers a decade earlier.[20] Victoria made it to the Sheffield Shield final again, and Harris scored another century in the final to finish off the summer.[21] Harris was given his first contract with Cricket Australia for the 2019–20 season.[22]

He was named in Australia's squad for the 2019 Ashes series in England.[23][24] He was omitted from the first two Tests, but recalled in place of Cameron Bancroft in the third Test.