Labuschagne's Test career back on the edge

Australia, 17 Aug- coach Andrew McDonald has conceded Marnus Labuschagne "needs some big runs" with selectors under pressure to make changes as they meet on Monday following a humbling defeat to Bangladesh in Darwin.

Labuschagne and Jake Weatherald are under immense scrutiny ahead of the second Test in Mackay. Labuschagne made 1 and 31 in Darwin, extending his Test century drought to 42 innings since his last in July of 2023 in which time he has averaged 25.32 with just nine fifties.

Labuschagne was dropped last year against West Indies and asked to go away and make changes to his method. He scored five domestic centuries in nine innings for Queensland in Sheffield Shield and One-Day cricket at the start of last summer to force his way back into the side for the Ashes. But after starting the series with two half-centuries he has made 166 runs at 18.44 in his last nine Test innings. He has reached 30 in three of his last four but has failed to convert any of them into half-centuries.

McDonald acknowledged that Labuschagne needed runs regardless of the progress he had made with his method.

"We want runs is the bottom line," McDonald said. "I think it was 31 he got in the second innings, and up until the point he got out, you'd sit there and say he was looking good.

"He was moving well, he's clipping off his pads, he was getting back through the ball down the ground. So it's easy for me to sit here and try to defend that, but ultimately it's 31. It's not a big score. He's lacked runs. He feels that. We feel that. We're working incredibly hard as a coaching group.

"It's one thing to talk about the player. You've got to talk coaching. We've got to get the best out of Marn as well. And we're working through that.

"I think we saw some change in the way that he played, so that's good. So some of that work that he had done feels as though it's stuck under pressure, and that's always a hard part too. You can try to make these changes, and then when you get put under extreme pressure in the middle, sometimes those changes don't hold. So it was good to see them hold up. "But it is 31. He's disappointed of that missed opportunity. He needs some big runs."

There is a significance to the decision on whether to axe Labuschagne again which does not apply to others. There is a prevailing thought that if he were to be left out for a second time in a year at 32 years of age after 64 Tests that it would be very difficult for him to return to Test cricket.

With unknowns about how long Steven Smith will play for there was desperation for Labuschagne to re-capture his form in order to have an experienced batter bedded at No. 3 for whenever Smith departs. The same applies to his ODI place after Smith had retired from that format.

The selectors stuck with him Bangladesh recently and slid him to No. 7 in the line-up rather than drop him altogether despite an even worse run of international form in that format, with the view being that he is still a key part of their planning for the ODI World Cup next year in South Africa. But McDonald is aware that there is public pressure to make a change.

"The easy option is to call for change," McDonald said. "A lot of people call for change even when we're winning, so they're entitled to do that as well on the back of a performance like that. Why wouldn't they? That's part of our lot. You lose the game. There's going to be calls on some guys who aren't performing to the levels that they would like or we would like."

There is equal scrutiny on Weatherald who made 23 and 0 in Darwin and now averages 20.36 after 12 Test innings. He made some significant adjustments to his set up following the Ashes in order to avoid getting trapped lbw but it affected his decision-making outside his off stump as he nicked behind and chopped on for the first time in Test cricket.

"There was some change to Jake in terms of where he lined up and his movement patterns," McDonald said. "It's always hard to critique small sample sizes as to whether it holds up. [He] dragged one on, drove at one in the first innings and was dismissed. "It's probably harder with that smaller sample size to say, yep, that's going to hold up under pressure."

Where Australia's selectors turn if they do make changes to their batting combination is an equally difficult question. The timing of the Test series means there is no domestic cricket being played. Josh Inglis is the only spare batter in the 13-man squad, but has only batted in the top three six times in first-class cricket, while Matt Renshaw and Cooper Connolly were the other two who trained with an extended squad in Brisbane in the lead-in.

Renshaw, 30, is the only one of those three best suited to a top three role coming off a Shield season where he made three centuries in 10 innings and averaged 49.90, which was comfortably the highest average among the top 25 run-scorers last season. His start to his international white-ball career has impressed selectors and he also has a strong record in Mackay having scored 170 and 135 in two of his three Shield innings there.

There have been calls for youth to be injected into Australia's line-up but the options are limited in terms of domestic performers. Connolly, 22, made an ODI century against Bangladesh opening the batting two months ago but has only once batted in the top three in first-class cricket and does not have a first-class century.

Sam Konstas and Campbell Kellaway both missed out in the CA XI game but have been working diligently on their games during the pre-season. It is much more likely both will be sent to India with Australia A in September.

"It's always going to be a conversation," McDonald said. "The age profile of the team, where we're at, how we're traveling, a loss doesn't help that. There's no doubt about that. These players have got a fair bit of cricket left in them, I believe. And it's just how we navigate through it.

"There's always going to be calls for change on the back of a loss. There's going to be an emotion around that from the outside and even internally. Our guys sit in that change room at the moment, and they're feeling it. You feel a Test loss. It means a lot to them to play for Australia. So let's not lose that in all this as well.

"It's how you move forward, and ultimately, our next decision is going to be our most important."Cricinfo