Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has defended the continued selection of Marnus Labuschagne while confirming the side will reassess both his place and the team’s overall age profile after a disappointing 2-1 series defeat in South Africa.
Labuschagne finished the tour with scores of 0 and 4 in Cape Town, leaving him without a half-century in 16 Test innings and averaging just 23.66 since his recall for last season’s Ashes. He now appears almost certain to lose his place for the second time in 18 months when the squad for the New Zealand series is named.
McDonald refused to engage with criticism from former Australia batter Simon Katich, who suggested selectors had “potentially crucified a bloke’s career” by persevering too long. Instead, the coach stressed that any opportunity to play for Australia should be viewed as valuable.
“We believed in Marnus for this tour. We’ll have to reassess that as we move forward,” McDonald said. “There’s still a very good cricketer there. Every time he drops back to state level, he outperforms the others. He’s had some opportunities that he’s missed on this tour in particular.”
Despite the series loss, which featured collapses to 99 and 111, McDonald pointed to encouraging batting performances. Cameron Green and Josh Inglis impressed in the first innings of the final Test — Inglis scoring a century after a late call-up for the injured Steven Smith — while Matt Renshaw finished as the leading run-scorer.
McDonald also indicated that Smith’s difficult tour and neck injury have not brought retirement any closer, and that Nathan Lyon remains the side’s first-choice spinner despite a modest series return. “We’re always going to have decisions to make, in particular around the age profile of our team,” he added.
Looking ahead to the four-Test series against New Zealand that begins in Perth in early December, McDonald suggested Lyon will prepare as normal and that Smith may play Sheffield Shield cricket to regain match fitness. New South Wales’ two home games later in November will also give outside candidates a chance to push their claims before the squad is finalised.