An Oddsworth Opinion
How long can Australia keep waiting on Marnus Labuschagne?
The story
After losing the series in South Africa, Australia coach McDonald said the selectors would look again at Marnus Labuschagne's place and at how old the squad is. He admitted positives were hard to find so soon after defeat but insisted the batting had developed.
ESPNcricinfo · 2 November at 06:06 GMTMcDonald: Australia will 'reassess' Labuschagne selection and squad's 'age profile'Read the full storyMcDonald has promised to reassess Marnus Labuschagne's place and the age profile of the squad, while insisting the batting has developed. That is a brave claim after South Africa won the last two Tests at St George's Park and Newlands, where Australia were bowled out for 99 and then for 111 in the deciding innings. Labuschagne's last Test brought 0 and 4.
Over 68 Tests he built a career batting average of 42.64 in men's Tests, the record of a batter you pick first and argue about never. Over the last two years that average is 24.1, against 33.51 for top-seven batters in all men's Tests over the same period. He has gone 33 innings without a hundred.
Career average 42.6
Is Labuschagne still a top Test batter?
Our ratings still place him 31st of 104 Test batters, worth 11 runs a match more than an average player. That figure carries the weight of a long career, the years of hundreds and long vigils at the crease, and it describes a batter who has not turned up for a while, rather like a fridge door still covered in swimming certificates from primary school.
The innings themselves tell a plainer story. He keeps getting in and getting out, settling at Kingsmead and again at St George's Park and then leaving with the job half done. A No. 3 or No. 4 who settles and then leaves is exactly what a fragile line-up cannot carry when the ball is doing something, and the two collapses that decided this series showed it.
Can Australia afford to leave him out?
McDonald's own logic helps him here. Australia remain our top-rated men's Test side, with a 74% chance of beating an average side, and they lost this series from a position of strength. A team that good can afford a reassessment that ends somewhere uncomfortable.
The route back already exists. Our Sheffield Shield ratings have Labuschagne sixth of 72 batters, so the runs he needs are available in domestic cricket. Australia should leave him out of the next Test XI and let him earn the place back in the Shield, because two years of averaging well below a typical top-seven batter is a long enough wait.