Critics are reading his death rites. This is proof Marnus can come back
The drums aren’t so much beating for Marnus Labuschagne as they have been smashed in.
The embattled right-hander looks almost certain to be axed from Australia’s Test team ahead of its next series.
Marnus Labuschagne trudges off after throwing away his wicket in Gqeberha. Getty Images
A dismal match in Cape Town where he returned scores of 0 and 4 essentially ensured he will be replaced in the side for a four-Test series against New Zealand, starting December 9 in Perth.
He will have to fight mighty hard – or be incredibly lucky – to get a ticket to India and England for tours next year, too.
But while his Test career is certain to be put on ice, it might not be completely over just yet.
The enigmatic Queenslander won’t turn 33 until the middle of next year and plenty of batters have done their best work in their mid-30s.
A recently retired teammate of Labuschagne’s is a prime example.
Usman Khawaja spent years in and out of the Test team as he struggled to consistently find his best form with the bat.
He was 32 years old – the same age Labuschagne is now – when he was dumped during the 2019 Ashes tour and spent two and a half years in Test exile.
When Khawaja was recalled for the fourth Ashes match in January 2022, he scored 137 and 101 not out against England in Sydney. It was a new and improved, more mature version of the stylish left-hander fans had known beforehand.
He was 35 by that stage, but became a mainstay of the team for the next three years and solidified his status as an Aussie cricket great, retiring last summer with 88 Tests and an average of 42.95 to his name.
Labuschagne’s own Test career started with a bang, averaging an astonishing 63.43 after 14 matches and becoming the No.1 rated red-ball batter in the world.
His form since the start of 2023 has been dire, averaging a measly 28.87 with just one century in that time – numbers that would get most players axed long before it got to this point. Questions have been raised about a change to his technique in recent times, seemingly moving away from the style that made him so successful a few years ago.
Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja after the latter's Dubai ton. Getty
But given his age and his appetite for learning, Labuschagne’s batting advisor Neil D’Costa is confident his pupil can return to Test cricket before he hangs up the pads.
“When you get to a stage where you must be second-guessing yourself, we wonder whether a break, maybe even earlier (than now), would have been the right thing to do,” D’Costa told The Age this week.
“It might be time to pull the cart off the racetrack, rebuild the engine from scratch and go again… He is hungry enough, he is fit enough, he is certainly disciplined enough to go away and find out if it’s technique, execution, or tactics.
“Once he works that [out], he will score heavy runs, no doubt.”
Labuschagne was dropped for last year’s tour of the West Indies, but was recalled for the summer’s Ashes series where he averaged just 28.77.
With a string of 15 Tests – four against New Zealand, five against India and England, as well as a 150th anniversary match against England – over the coming 10 months, Cricket Australia might do well to give Labuschagne an extended break in the hope he rediscovers his best form.
With the looming retirement of Steve Smith, there may be a chance for him to replace his idol and restart his Test career before too long.
