Marcus Harris

Sharris - that’s how Marcus Sinclair Harris describes himself on Twitter. However, a single word could not describe his calibre. Harris is a highly regarded young batsman for the Australian Test team, who covered a journey from being a mediocre player to a consistent opening batsman in Justin Langer’s words. 

Born in Perth, Harris began the road at Scarborough Cricket Club as a 10-year old, before becoming a State player for Western Australia. He burst onto the domestic scene in 2010-11 when he scored 157 in his third first-class match, which made him the youngest Australian to score a first-class 150. 

Harris always had flashes of brilliance but he needed some fine-tuning and he got fine-tuned at Victoria. After playing 41 Sheffield Shield games for his home state and scoring over 2000 runs, but only at 28.43, the youngster took a huge step to migrate to Victoria in 2016. And that huge step paid off. 

At Victoria, the talented batter had an outstanding run of form and ultimately was handed a Test call-up for the 2018-19 series against India following a prolific start to the domestic season, which included a career-best 250 against New South Wales. 

Harris played two astonishing knocks of 70 and 79 against a high-class Indian pace attack, in a historic Indian Test series win. However, he missed out against Sri Lanka and Pakistan as David Warner returned from the ban, but was again selected for the Ashes in 2019. 

Since his return, Harris hasn’t been that consistent at the international stage. While his love affair with the Sheffield Shield resumed soon after, with some charismatic innings in 2021-22, which could be another fine-tuning before the big Ashes. 

(As of November 2021)