Harris punishes Blues with double ton

Victorian opener Marcus Harris has entered the Test batting selection debate with his first Sheffield Shield double century.

The left-hander anchored the Victorians' first innings on Friday, reaching 210 not out at stumps on day two of their match against NSW at the MCG.

After bowling out NSW for 159 on day one, the home side is well-placed at 8-356, a lead of 197.

It is Harris' first double ton at any level.

"There's plenty of water to go under the bridge - my main focus is trying to win games for Victoria," he said of Test speculation.

"If we do that, the other stuff will take care of itself."

Adding to the visitors' problems, they lost bowler Mickey Edwards to a side strain and he is in doubt for the rest of the match.

Harris batted for 516 minutes and faced 357 balls in his ninth first-class score above 100, hitting 19 boundaries, with national chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns in attendance.

The thoughts of Australian coach Justin Langer will be interesting, given what happened when Harris defected from WA to Victoria two years ago.

Langer, then the WA coach, described his batting as “mediocre with flashes of brilliance” and his form “frustrating”.

Harris said they had spoken several times since and there are no problems.

"We're good ... I sort of got a clip on the way out but you'd probably be disappointed if you put a lot of time into someone and they went and left," he said.

"He's going to hit you between the eyes with what he thinks.

"You'd rather that than him mincing his words."

Harris had a scare in the second over of the innings, when a delivery from Daniel Sams kept low and narrowly missed his off stump.

A lofted shot on 94 fell just wide of a fieldsman and the straight hit for four that brought up his 200 also was nearly caught.

But otherwise Harris was rock-solid and curbed his usual aggression, adapting to the flat wicket.

Resuming at 3-101, Victoria only added 50 in the morning session.

They looked wobbly when Sangha took two wickets in an over after lunch. That included a freakish catch from Nick Larkin at bat-pad to remove Matt Short for one.

They were Sangha's first Shield wickets and Victoria were 6-192, with the new ball looming.

But an 81-run stand between Harris and Seb Gotch (30) consolidated their position.

Opening bowler Trent Copeland was the pick of the NSW attack with 3-60, while Sangha took 3-47.

Victoria: Peter Handscomb (c), Cameron White, Travis Dean, Seb Gotch (wk), Matt Short, Eamonn Vines, Scott Boland, Chris Tremain, Marcus Harris, Andrew Fekete, Fawad Ahmed

NSW: Daniel Hughes, Nick Larkin, Kurtis Patterson, Moises Henriques, Jack Edwards, Peter Nevill (c/wk), Jason Sangha, Daniel Sams, Trent Copeland, Daniel Fallins, Mickey Edwards