Shaun Marsh: Glamorgan seek replacement for Australia batsman

Shaun Marsh has scored 143 runs in four 50-over games for Glamorgan this season

Glamorgan will be without Australia batsman Shaun Marsh for the last four games of their One-Day Cup campaign.

Marsh will join up with the tourists' squad preparing for their series against England.

Glamorgan have another Australia star, Usman Khawaja, joining them for the T20 Blast.

"We're looking not just at Usman (coming early), but at any options that we could bring in if that's at all possible," said coach Robert Croft.

The Australians play Sussex in their opening warm-up match on 7 June, a day after Glamorgan's final One-Day Cup game, but Marsh will not be available again until late June after scoring 143 runs in four 50-over games.

He will miss two or three Championship games in addition to the One-Day Cup.

Selection headaches

Batsman Kiran Carlson will be available after university examinations on 1 June, but fast bowlers Michael Hogan and Marchant de Lange have hamstring injuries, while Graham Wagg ricked his neck in the defeat against Kent although it is hoped he will not miss any games.

"If we don't have an overseas players for this next game (away to Essex on 30 May), it will give an opportunity to one of our guys who've been scoring hundreds in the second team," Croft told BBC Sport Wales.

"It (bringing someone in) is certainly something we're monitoring and working hard at."

Glamorgan's defeat against Kent was their fourth reverse in four, after winning four of their eight games in 2017.

"We have identified common mistakes throughout the competition, and it's up to us to do everything in practice to eradicate those," Croft said.

"We're getting a lot of players set (batting), and we haven't got a hundred yet, though we've been getting close. Each time we've been tripping up and that's taking us away an extra 30 or 40 runs we should be getting."

'Not far away'

"Not quite on the mark is probably the best way to describe how we've been throughout this competition, because I don't think we've been that far away from playing well," reflected former Glamorgan captain and BBC Sport Wales pundit Mark Wallace.

"Nick Selman played very well at the top against Kent for 92 runs, but we lost wickets around him and 274 was under par from the position they were in.

"A good performance from Ruaidhri Smith in his first game of the season, he and Lukas Carey were two home-grown talents taking the new ball and doing very well at the top of the Kent innings, but (the team) haven't been able to finish things off with the bat or the ball."

Wallace is now hoping to see a few experiments in the One-Day Cup, with virtually no hope of qualification for the knock-out stages.

"It's a good opportunity to give Ruaidhri Smith some games, and there've been some good performances in the second team as well with Connor Brown and Owen Morgan getting runs, so there are opportunities to give them some experience in this format," he added.