With his face hidden by the grill of his helmet, only Marcus Harris knows how he felt the instant the great Australian bat off swung his way. Australia A captain Nathan McSweeney – Harris’s main rival for the vacant Test opening position – had just been dismissed softly against India A, caught in the slips for 14 in Melbourne’s mid-afternoon gloom.
As McSweeney turned and walked, Harris was almost too quick to put his head down, an apparent nod to the magnitude of the moment. He scuttled back onto the pitch, sacrificing at the non-striker’s end a practice shot, then another, to the cricketing gods. By the time he strolled away and took off his lid, his face gave nothing away.
