Veteran Marsh targeting club return ahead of BBL

Veteran batter Shaun Marsh appears unlikely to play for Western Australia before the Big Bash break after a setback in his recovery from knee surgery.

Marsh, who signed a one-year contract extension with WA in May after leading the state to their first Sheffield Shield title in 23 years last season, suffered a high-grade calf strain in preparation for their second four-day match of the summer that will see him sidelined until early December.

The 39-year-old, who is WA's third leading Sheffield Shield run-scorer of all-time with 8330, already had a delayed start to the season due to having a clean-up of his knee during the offseason after a "momentary locking" of the joint during their Marsh One-Day Cup final victory over NSW last March.

Marsh batted on in that match and played out the rest of the season where he captained WA to their breakthrough Shield triumph, their first since 1998-99, three weeks later.

The former 38-Test batter had already flagged his intentions to step back from domestic one-day cricket ahead of his 22nd season with WA to get more experience into their young talent, but the red-ball side has hardly noticed their captain's absence having gone undefeated through the opening four rounds to sit comfortably on top of the Marsh Sheffield Shield table.

The left-hander has a worrying history of "high-grade" calf injuries with his most recent sidelining him for the first half of the KFC BBL last summer.

But WA is hopeful that Marsh, who also inked a two-year contract extension with the Melbourne Renegades in February to keep him at the club until the age of 40, will return to action in club cricket in early December.

That means he could be available for the 'Gades Big Bash opener against the Brisbane Heat in Cairns on December 15.

Although he's been out of action so far, WA head coach Adam Voges underlined Marsh's importance to their squad to cricket.com.au ahead of the season.

"Just having him around at the moment is invaluable in terms of what he can provide from an experience point of view," said Voges.

"The younger guys gravitate to him and him to be able to fast track their development and help them is certainly something that we really highly value.

"He's still hungry to keep getting better, he's still hungry to help our young guys.

"For us to keep developing our squad we felt that there might be more opportunity in the white-ball (format), so he's shown a willingness to step aside and allow us to play other players in that format."

Western Australia are back in action in the Marsh One-Day Cup later today when they take on South Australia at the WACA following their thumping innings victory over the Redbacks in the Shield on Monday.

Left-arm seamer Joel Paris returns to the squad after missing the Shield match following the birth of his second daughter Gracie with wife Kodie earlier this month.

Fellow quick Jhye Richardson remains sidelined with heel bruising and is set to be tested ahead of their next Shield match against NSW at the SCG next Tuesday.

WA Marsh Cup squad: Ashton Turner (c), Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Hilton Cartwright, Cameron Gannon, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kelly, Joel Paris, Josh Philippe, D’Arcy Short, Andrew Tye, Sam Whiteman