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Marnus Labuschagne is facing the axe after his failures in the WTC Final against South Africa despite a switch in the batting position.
Marnus Labuschagne could be dropped from Australia’s playing 11 after the WTC Final (Image: AP)
After Australia’s five-wicket loss to South Africa in the 2025 World Test Championship (WTC) Final at Lord’s on Saturday, head coach Andrew McDonald has hinted at possible changes to the top order, including a likely snub for Marnus Labuschagne, ahead of the new cycle starting in the West Indies.
Labuschagne was promoted to open alongside Usman Khawaja for the first time to accommodate all-rounder Cameron Green at number three. However, this strategy failed as Labuschagne failed to convert stars, continuing his poor form, while both Khawaja and Green struggled even more.
“It was a big discussion leading into this Test match, and I was on the record a couple of weeks ago talking about the need to bed down that opening combination,” McDonald told the media. “We’ve had a bit of musical chairs there, so it might be the time. But as we sit here right now, you got to say that South Africa were better in this Test match. We’ve got to look at the improvements that we need to make. There’s no doubt about that.”
Mostly batting at number three, Labuschagne averaged just 27.82 in the 2023-25 WTC cycle. McDonald gave a mixed answered on his form, saying that though Australia value him and are ‘confident’ he could be back to his best, ‘most players get dropped’ at some point.
“Anyone that averages 45, 46 in Test cricket at that age is important,” the coach said. “We’ve got older players there that are closer to the end than the start. We’ve got some younger players that are coming in. If he can get his game in good order for the next four or five years, he can underpin that batting order. But at the moment, he’d be disappointed with the returns. He’s missed out on big scores. But we’re confident that he could return to his best, and hence why we keep picking him. And at what point do we stop picking him? I think most players across their journey get dropped at some point in time. I think he had a positive week here where he worked on the right things and had a great prep. There’s no harder worker than Marnus. Now it’s really just about the returns. And at the moment, as I said, he’d be disappointed,” he elaborated.
Regarding Khawaja, McDonald was more certain and clear with his backing, hinting the left-hander could be given a similar opportunity to David Warner when he was nearing the end of his Test career.
“He’s on contract; he’s an important player. He gives us stability at his best at the top. And we like to look at our players at their best. No doubt, a couple of failures here, and people then start to talk about maybe it’s the end. I don’t see an end date with the way he’s training, the way he’s preparing, and the way he’s moving. He went back to Shield cricket and got 100 last (season). So I think he’s got plenty of runs left in him. It’ll come down to his inner drive and the way he prepares.”
“It was a bit the same with Davey as well. The way he moved, we saw some positives in that. We knew that the runs were around the corner. We feel as though Usman’s got a big part to play,” he concluded.
(With IANS Inputs)
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A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
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