Chris Rogers says Marcus Harris needs only to look at Usman Khawaja’s stunning return for inspiration.
Harris, 29, was dropped on Thursday ahead of the fifth and final Ashes Test in Hobart and replaced by Khawaja at the top of the order.
The Victorian left-hander hit 179 runs at 29.83 across the opening four Tests, with a top score of 76 in Melbourne to set up their innings victory in the Boxing Day Test.
His output was marginally higher than his overall Test career, where he averages 25.29 from 14 Tests since debuting in late 2018.
But after 35-year-old Khawaja hit twin centuries on his return from a two-and-a-half year absence from the Test arena, the versatile Queensland captain has been elevated from the middle of the order to replace Harris following Travis Head’s return from a positive Covid test.
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Rogers, who coaches Harris at state level, says Harris can take inspiration from his teammate’s return to the Test summit.
“He doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration because Usman Khawaja has taken his spot and he’s 35 and by that logic there’s still six years to get better and churn out runs,” Rogers told foxsports.com.au.
“Uzzie got left out for various reasons and then went away and seemingly worked on his game and come back and played those two innings.
“Marcus will be disappointed but there’s still plenty of opportunities if he’s good enough.”
Rogers, who waited five years to play his second Test and went on to average 42.87 from 25 matches, knows what it is like to be left out in the cold.
But the former opening batsman himself does not think the world has come down on Harris and believes he can in fact take confidence out of his latest stint in the Test side.
“I don’t think there’s necessarily one reason (he hasn’t scored the big innings),” he said. “As a batsman, you can get out. It’s a tough job.
“I think the fact the last three innings have represented a good body of work and he’s played a good role at the top, that was good to see. It was just that he didn’t turn one into a hundred. But I think it’ll give him a bit of confidence too.
“It’s tough, but he’ll be aware that the bloke who came in came in and scored two hundreds so I think he’ll be realistic about it.
“What he’ll see, there’s plenty of opportunities if he scores runs. It’s not like he’s fallen off the edge of the mountain and he’ll never be able to climb it. it’s a little bit of a setback but he’s got to get to work now.”
Rogers does not think he needs to put an arm around the “low-maintenance” batsman and said he was an “extremely level” head.
Both Khawaja and David Warner are 35 with the finish line of their careers closer than the start.
Rogers believes for that reason Harris is in a good position to remain in contention for a return should he score heavily in the seasons to come.
“The other thing he’ll be thinking about is the two guys opening the batting are both mid-30s and they can’t play on forever, so you’ve got to be front and centre when an opportunity arises,” he said.
Meanwhile, Harris’ Victorian teammate Will Pucovski, who hit a half-century on Test debut last January before injuring his shoulder, returned to club cricket last weekend.
The right-hander, who suffered his 10th concussion earlier in the year, struck 32 from 30.
Rogers said the positive sign of his return was he came out wanting to get better, hitting the nets on Monday.
“Yeah I had a chat with him,” Rogers said.
“It took him a little bit of time just to get used to being out there again but he was back in the nets on Monday trying to work on a technical thing, so you don’t do that unless you’re completely committed to the next period of your career.
“You can just sense that he’s so keen to be back where he thinks he belongs and that’s going to take a bit of work but he’s committed to it.”