Will Marnus Labuschagne be dropped from the Australian Test team after failures against Bangladesh?, potential replacements for South Africa tour, statistics, latest news

Australia’s selectors are back where they started a little more than a year ago.

For chairman of selectors George Bailey, his right-hand man Tony Dodemaide and Australian coach Andrew McDonald, the curious case of Marnus Labuschagne persists.

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They have shown they have been willing to bite the bullet in the past, but with a tour of South Africa and a bumper year of Test cricket on the horizon, they were left with more questions than answers by the Top End series draw with Bangladesh.

This was meant to be the series where Australia’s batters could finally fill their boots.

After multiple summers of hard graft of spicy surfaces, the likes of Labuschagne, Jake Weatherald and Cameron Green were meant to trade bruises for cover drives and confidence boosting runs.

Green delivered with a century in Darwin, and he was the only batter to pass fifty in Mackay to top the run charts for the series.

Weatherald was the casualty of the shock loss in his hometown, while Labuschagne left the Australian hierarchy scratching their heads.

His streak without a Test century still extends back to the Old Trafford Test of the 2023 Ashes series.

In 43 Test innings since that Manchester ton, Labuschagne averages 24.69 and has scored nine half-centuries.

The last of which came in the first innings at the Gabba during the Ashes.

They are bleak numbers for the nation’s Test No.3, but aside from his axing in the West Indies last year, the selectors have remained loyal off the back of domestic form and key innings in victories.

Labuschagne was spared for last year’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s because of his knocks of 72 and 70 in Australia’s famous final day victory against at the MCG the summer prior.

He was selected for the Bangladesh series due to contributions of 51 not out in Perth, 65 in Brisbane as well as 48 and 37 in Sydney in Ashes victories.

McDonald told Cricinfo during Australia’s pre-series training camp that on more sporting surfaces, this team assesses their batters not on averages but of the percentage of the team’s runs or the total runs scored for the match.

But captain Pat Cummins perhaps hinted in press conference in Mackay on Sunday evening that the old fashioned metric is beginning to weigh too heavy.

“I don’t reckon I can guarantee anyone really. He’s not scored the runs he would’ve liked,” Cummins said after the match.

“I did say a couple of days ago – and I think it still stands – he’s been batting fantastically well off the field. But it doesn’t mean much. You’ve got to convert that into runs out there.

“We’ve got a bit of time. Selectors will get together I’m sure in the next week or two and start nutting out that next Test squad. We know he’s class when he’s at his best, and going into this series we thought he was pretty close to his best.

“But he needs to start transferring that into runs out there, so we’ll see in the next couple of weeks.”

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Labuschagne looked all at sea on day one at Marrara Stadium before appearing to have turned a corner during his 31 in the first innings.

He was eventually undone by left arm tweaker Taijul Islam as he yorked himself trying to whip the ball through the leg side.

Traditionalists urged him to play straight, but the 32-year-old was defended by former teammate David Warner, who on commentary for Fox Cricket stressed that flicking spinners through square leg is one of Labuschagne’s great strengths.

He just somehow missed that delivery.

There is an adage in cricket that you need a start; you need a 20 to 30 odd before a big score.

It serves as a launch pad because your game is in decent shape but with a few little tweaks, a batter will be away.

But in Mackay, Labuschagne being bowled for 4 via his thigh pad proved another famous cricket adage, when you’re out of luck the game will really punish you.

Speaking to Fox Cricket before play on day two, Labuschagne said the dismissal was a result of wanting to “rush a bit”.

“You know there’s an opportunity to put a bit of pressure on the bowler and probably played a shot I didn’t really need to at that time of the game,” he added.

“But it’s a new opportunity this week and all those lessons learned last week hopefully we can put them into place.”

While Australia’s all-time leading Test run scorer Ricky Ponting believes it was a sign that enough is enough.

“He was unlucky today. There’s no doubt about that,” Ponting said on Channel 7.

“But that tends to happen to you as well when you’re struggling and you’re trying to find some form and some rhythm. The worry that I had with him, I think there’s some technical deficiency there but he’s making the margin for error for the bowlers too great.

“With the length, he can’t score off the back foot. If you can’t score off the back foot in Test cricket then batting becomes a hard game.

“So, I well and truly think it’s time to have a look at somebody else. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one for making panic change just because we lost last week.

“It wasn’t about that. I didn’t want to make change (as a captain) but when something stretches out as long as it has now and it’s well over two years since he’s made a Test match hundred.”

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Australian great Mark Waugh’s revelation on Fox Cricket’s coverage the next morning that Labuschagne had cut away a chunk of his thigh pad to prevent such a rare act happening again screamed of desperation.

The Queenslander is well documented cricket nuffy and will do anything to turn the corner.

But he will not get the chance to before Australia’s selectors issue their verdict on his Test future.

An ODI squad to tour Zimbabwe and South Africa next month is set to be named early next week, along with an Australia A squad to tour India for two four-day games and three one-day matches.

Labuschagne’s 50-over future is uncertain as he donned the Australian gold on tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh earlier this year.

But he had been left out during the home series against India last summer and was offered a reprieve due to others being unavailable as a result from T20 franchise commitments and workload management.

The Test squad for South Africa is expected to be named by mid-September – meaning there is no cricket to be played in the time in between for Labuschagne to show that he was perhaps a bit stiff against Bangladesh and that he can still do the job.

But there is also no time for other contenders to stake their claim either – except for the likes of Nathan McSweeney who are in England playing county cricket.

That is why former Australian batsman Michael Hussey is sticking by Labuschagne.

Albeit he thinks a change in role is in order – the one he performed against South Africa at Lord’s a year ago.

“I think Matt Renshaw’s a good fit at the top of the order. I’m moving Marnus Labuschagne up from three,” Hussey said on Kayo Sports’ Big Break on day two in Mackay.

“I know everyone else out there seems to want to get rid of Marnus Labuschagne but I’m going against the grain.

“I’m keeping him and the reason I’m keeping him is because I just think that we know that he’s a world-class player.

“He’s not been at his best for a fair while now (and) we’ve got to somehow find a way (to help him back to his best). And the other thing is, okay, who is going to replace him in the team?”

That question has become multi-faceted.

Like Hussey, Mark Waugh believes Travis Head needs to return to the middle order.

Steve Smith could return to No.3, where he averages 65.22 in Test cricket – better than any other place in the order – and has cracked eight Test hundreds.

Green could be bumped up to No.4 – where he scored a century against New Zealand when Smith had a brief stint opening – and Head could slot back at his pre-Ashes customary No.5.

Or Green could go to No.3 where he batted in the WTC final and in the West Indies last year.

Regardless of how a potential reshuffle would play out, Hussey and Waugh disagree on the role of Labuschagne with the latter saying, “he might have played his last game for Australia”.

Waugh’s suggestion would then leave the selectors searching the country for another opener.

Despite ball dominating bat last summer in the Sheffield Shield, four of the top five run scorers were opening batters.

Victorian wicketkeeper Sam Harper was a revelation as an attacking opener after Christmas off the back of being crowned the Big Bash’s player of the tournament.

The 29-year-old scored twin tons against Western Australia at the WACA and finished the season with 677 runs at 35.63.

But his numbers at the top of the order were 496 runs at 55.11 in ten innings.

South Australia’s Henry Hunt (673 runs at 35.42) would present another untried option.

So too would Harper’s Victorian opening partner Campbell Kellaway, who is highly fancied but averaged 26.78 last season with one century.

Cameron Bancroft (674 runs at 33.70) and Sam Konstas (660 runs at 33) provide tried and tested options that would be heavily scrutinised.

A return to South Africa after Sandpapergate would be a daunting proposition for Bancroft, while selectors certainly see Konstas as a player of the future but would not have expected to call upon the 20-year-old again so soon after his nightmare tour of the Caribbean.

Whichever direction the selectors choose to go, former Australian captain Alyssa Healy believes the window is now for a fresh talent to be introduced.

“I think they are going to have to force some change into the South African series and bring some fresh blood in,” she said on Fox Cricket.

“I mean, there is no reason why not anymore because we are failing as is. It feels sad to stand here and say that, but it is time to have another look.

“But what the key in that change now is that at the moment our bowling attack is as good as it’s ever been and, yes, they’re ageing … but while they’re good, while they’re fit, while they’re still holding this team together, you can afford to make those batting changes because they’re currently holding this team up.

“But as soon as they start to have a few niggles, or injuries start to creep in, or some start to retire, for instance, if they’re making those batting changes then and having bowling changes at the same time, it is going to make it a really tricky task for the Australian team.

“So, I just believe if they’re even thinking about making changes right now, do it while (the) bowling (attack is strong).”

Healy’s suggestion does not bode well for Labuschagne’s future.

It will be fascinating watch in the coming weeks and months.

For if his prolific form at the start of last summer for Queensland after being dropped from the Test team is anything to go by, speculation about Labuschagne’s place in the side will not go away anytime soon.

Especially with no standout alternatives pressing their case.