LUCKNOW, May 24 -- It was a big surprise for everyone when even after missing the Champions Trophy due to lower back pain, Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh was cleared to play for Lucknow Super Giants in his first season with the franchise but only as batter this March. Many felt it was a bad decision by the franchise as Marsh had 37 wickets in 54 matches before joining LSG and his utility was best only as an all-rounder. But the 33-year-old captain of Australia's T20 side proved his worth with willow, emerging as the highest run getter for the side with 560 runs, including a century. In fact, Marsh was ruled out of the ODI tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy on January 31 due to injury which put an end to his domestic season. It was understood to be related to a disc problem that he had been managing since the limited overs tour of the UK in September 2024. Reports said Marsh saw a back specialist in early February and underwent a period of rest to try and settle the problem. He has returned to batting then before being picked by LSG for $US400,000 at the IPL auction last year. He had not played a game since playing in the BBL for Perth Scorchers on January 7. He rested from Scorchers' final two matches of the BBL season thereafter. That match was his only appearance after being omitted from Australia's Test team ahead of the fifth Test of the Border-Gavaskar series. Prior to that BBL appearance, his last white-ball matches were during the September T20I and ODI tour of the UK. Marsh has played for Delhi Capitals in the last three IPL seasons but has had some significant injury issues. He damaged his hamstring in last year's IPL after just four games and had to return home to rehab before leading Australia in the T20 World Cup. He has previously played for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rising Pune Supergiants, Pune Warriors and Deccan Chargers. On Thursday, Marsh's 117 off 64 balls with the help of 10 boundaries and eight sixes at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad against hosts Gujarat Titans on Thursday night has been his best so far in his nine seasons of the cash-rich league. With one more go for LSG this season, the current season has also been the best so far for Marsh. Expressing happiness on smashing century against GT on Thursday, Marsh praised the IPL and called it the "best competition in the world." The Aussie all-rounder mentioned that how the tournament is unpredictable and the perfect example of this is when LSG defeated GT on their home ground at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. LSG won by 33 runs after setting a competitive total of 235 runs and Marsh was the star of the match. "It's been very disappointing. We lost close games, and we are out of the race. The IPL is a best of competitions. Any team can beat any team in this competition on a given day; that's why this is the best competition in the world," Marsh said after being named as the Player of the Match. "I have had a few years off in between as well (on finally getting his first IPL hundred). First played for the Deccan Chargers in 2010. It's been a while. Getting an opportunity to open the batting." "The partnership with Aiden on and off the field has been amazing. I came to the IPL pretty fresh. They (GT) bowled really well in the powerplay. If you are 12 off 12 in the powerplay, it's panic stations, but once we got a few good partnerships, it made things easy for us," he added....