Mitch Marsh has resumed bowling, with the allrounder hoping to come off the long run next week.
Marsh is playing the first half of the Sheffield Shield season as a specialist batsman after undergoing a shoulder reconstruction.
The 26-year-old, who batted at No.6 in Australia's Test side and was capable of clocking 140 km/h with the ball prior to going under the knife, is tracking well in his stated ambition to be bowling in matches come the Big Bash League.
"I'm back bowling now. I'll hopefully be pushing back off the long run in the next week or so," Marsh told AAP.
"I've had four or five bowls off eight steps. Two days ago I pushed back to about three-quarter run-up for the first time.
"It felt great. I'd sort of forgotten what bowling pain-free felt like.
"But you need about eight weeks of bowling and at least four off the long run before you can start to even think about bowling in a game."
Marsh has been arguably Australia's most scrutinised and criticised cricketer since fellow allrounder Shane Watson's retirement, with brother Shaun also in the mix.
Western Australia's captain admits "it certainly used to piss me off when I was younger".
"But I've learned that people are always going to have their opinion no matter what and it's so irrelevant. I actually just laugh about it now," Marsh said.
"The most important thing for Shaun and I is we've got great people around us, great family and that's all that matters. All we can do is go out there, watch the ball as hard as we can and perform.
"Everything else is absolutely irrelevant."
Marsh, who will square off against Steve Smith's NSW in a pivotal Sheffield Shield clash that starts in Sydney on Saturday, played down his hopes of featuring in the early stages of the Ashes.
"If I want to play cricket for Australia it's as an allrounder ... unless I made three double-centuries in the first three Shield games I'm probably not in the mix," he said.
