David Warner has missed out on the player of the match honour, with Mitchell Marsh’s back-to-back half centuries and bowling performance preferred over the opener’s ton.
Marsh hit 90 in the first innings and backed it up with 63 not out in the second during Australia’s 360-run win.
The all-rounder also claimed the wicket of world class batter Babar Azam in Pakistan’s first innings.
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Marsh was a surprise choice, considering Warner’s 164 on day one set up Australia’s victory, but it was a deserved honour for the 32-year-old playing on his home turf.
“It’s been amazing, obviously my first Test at Perth Stadium and the first Test match at Perth in six years so it’s nice to be back,” Marsh said at the post-match presentation.
“Thank you everyone for getting around me it’s been an incredible experience.”
Marsh was aggressive in both innings, scoring at just under a run-a-ball, but copped two blows to the helmet in his second dig with the pitch providing unexpected bounce at times.
Despite making batting look easy, the 32-year-old admitted the conditions made it “tricky”.
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“It’s an interesting one, I think when you go out and have a biggish lead it takes the pressure off a little bit but the wicket felt really tricky and we just wanted to get above 400, then we can sort of push the button a bit,” Marsh said.
“So even today we felt it was going to be pretty tricky and we knew our bowlers today were going to be a handful and that proved to be the case and they bowled outstanding.”
While most of his heroics came with the bat, Marsh’s pace was required in Pakistan’s first innings, finishing with of 1-34.
Despite being happy to have claimed the wicket of Pakistan’s former captain, the all-rounder admitted his preference lies with batting.
“Bowling hurts way too much so I’ll take the runs,” he laughed.
“But it is very nice to contribute with the ball, we’ve obviously got such an amazing bowling attack and my role throughout the summer will be to give them a chop out and I think it’s really important for me to contribute and get one in the right areas.
“Babar, he’s a class player and it’s a great feeling.”
