Michael Clarke says Mitchell Marsh could end up in his shoes one day as Australia’s Test captain.

Marsh’s dad, the former Australia vice-captain and ex-national coach Geoff Marsh, has told the boy to just get through his first game.

Geoff Marsh presented his son Mitchell, 23, with his baggy green cap on debut on Wednesday in Dubai in a moving on-field ceremony.

The legendary tough guy and ex-opener “Swampy” Marsh, who formed a famous pairing with another hard man of Australia cricket David Boon, was struggling to contain his emotions.

The 50-Test veteran said later: “It was quite tough, really. It was a real honour to be asked to do it.”

It would be an extremely tough assignment for pace-bowling allrounder Mitchell Marsh to eventually make team to captain.

Skippers in general are batsmen, which can make rotating bowlers and setting fields a simpler task when you’re not one of them yourself.

Five players have captained Australia in more than 45 Tests and all are batsmen.

They are Greg Chappell, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Allan Border.

Mitchell Marsh has matured from his partying days of a few years ago, according to his dad.

But as for the captaincy, “Swampy” says that could be a long way off.

“It’s nice to hear the Australian captain say things like that,” Marsh said.

“It’s really up to Mitch. As I said to him, you just go one day at a time.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself and keep doing the things you’ve been doing to get here now and being smart about your cricket.

“He’s only a young boy. He thinks about the game a lot.

“He’s got to get through a lot of hurdles. He’s only young.

“Hopefully he can just perform well and consistently and see what happens after that.”