Cricket: Window of opportunity closing for Hamish

Twelve months ago, Hamish Marshall was looking back with a fair degree of satisfaction on the way his career was panning out.

He had picked up both batting honours at the annual New Zealand Cricket awards, had flailed Australia for 146 in Christchurch and would soon register a high score of 160 in the first test against Sri Lanka to put himself in a position where he could justifiably look forward to a long and prosperous future in the game.

Now, however, the 27-year-old looks a shadow of that man, such is the severity of Marshall's lean trot. Yesterday was a great chance to arrest the slide on a good batting track but he trudged back to the pavilion with only three against his name, knowing the speculation about his place, and the opening combination, was hardly likely to abate.

While Marshall might have been willing to step up the order to open the innings, it's a move that is clearly not working for the frizzy-headed one. He's simply not an opener and the more he fails there, the harder it will be for him to be selected each week, despite the fact he still has the healthiest test average of anyone in the team at 42.5.

Since that knock of 160 against Sri Lanka in April, Marshall has posted test scores of 6, 6, 20, 13, 11, 1 and 3 - and it needs to be remembered the last five innings have been against the lightweight attacks of Zimbabwe and West Indies.

He's fared little better in both one-day international and domestic cricket but it's time in the middle he needs and the domestic competition might be the best place for him to find that elusive form. Certainly with a tough three-test series looming in South Africa, now might be the time to try something different.

In many ways, Bracewell has engineered this predicament by calling on Marshall to move up the order but the problem is that, like so many years in the past, there is a dearth of openers in the country. Of the leading contenders, only Michael Papps is a recognised opener and the selectors said he was unlucky to miss out on the initial squad, suggesting he is the next cab off the rank.

Another option is Peter Fulton, who has said in the past he would be prepared to open, which would allow Lou Vincent or Mathew Sinclair, who is in irresistible form domestically, to come back into the side. Although Jamie How is hardly setting the world alight, it needs to be remembered yesterday was only his third test innings.

Marshall could silence the speculation with a commanding knock in the second innings at the Basin and, in 12 months, he could again be New Zealand's leading batsman and the events of the past year could just be a bad dream. But that's only if he gets that chance and there can't be too many of those left.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY