Cricket lovers and the mainstream media are arguing over which failed former Test opener should join the top order in the first Ashes Test in Perth next month.
There is less argument over who should sub in for injured captain Pat Cummins with Steve Smith, even though Australia should have moved past him years ago on moral and succession grounds, the prime and only candidate.
Yet why not respond to the two questions with the one answer?
Who was the Australian captain who scored an unbeaten century in his last outing?
Who was the Australian captain who scored a century in his last outing in a different format?
Who scored a match-winning century in the previous Ashes Test in Perth?
Who is averaging 96.75 in Test cricket in Perth in the past eight years?
Who has opened successfully in international ranks in recent times?
Who is leading a highly successful, cohesive and dynamic team?
Who is in the most clear-minded, relaxed and, not surprisingly, best form of his life?
Mitch Marsh is the answer to all those questions and Mitch Marsh should be the answer to Australia’s captaincy and top order quandaries on the eve of the biggest series in the game.
Marsh has produced brilliant white-ball series against South Africa and New Zealand in the past month or so during which he became just the fifth Australian to record centuries in all three international formats.
Mitch Marsh scored a century the last time the Ashes were played in Perth.
A century and 197 T20 runs came against New Zealand this week following his recent return of 206 ODI runs, including another ton, against South Africa in far north Queensland in August.
If the national selectors are looking for a player in outstanding form, with vast experience against strong international teams, especially the imminent visitors, armed with maturity and the mental and physical traits that allow him to focus and relax when required, he is sitting under their noses.
It would be unorthodox to parachute a captain into the Australian team – and this intensely conservative selection panel is anything but unorthodox - but how often has it been able to write a team list with a successful, experienced and thriving international captain waiting in the wings?
Maybe selection chairman George Bailey has his eyes on Marsh, too.
“I don’t necessarily think that his red-ball career is over,” Bailey said six months ago when there was plenty of noise about the 33-year-old Marsh’s Test days having come to an end.
“I still think there’s an incredibly exciting skill set there with the bat, the way he can rip a game open.
“If you look ahead to a team like England, and the way they play their cricket and the way they seem to be framing up their team, I think he’s got a skill set that could be helpful.”
Now that is not a guarantee, maybe little more than a prominent national figure playing a generous straight bat to an issue that doesn’t need extra oxygen, but it certainly leaves the door open for Marsh.
That was six months ago, as well.
Few other candidates have since pressed their claims in convincing fashion while Marsh has flourished beyond anything he has achieved previously.
Sometimes the best selections are the obvious ones.
Mitch Marsh has rarely been an obvious selection but he is not far off being the best one.
A plan so crazy, it just might work