As much as the Australian selectors turn a blind eye to any thought that Marnus Labuschagne’s position in the Test team is vulnerable, his current slump should be more than enough to put his spot in jeopardy.
With star all-rounder Cameron Green due back from back surgery for the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June, the selection squeeze is on for the top six batters.
With Green likely to only be available as a specialist batter, Beau Webster is likely to get a start against South Africa unless the Aussie brains trust opts against their usual policy of playing an all-rounder to support their four frontline bowlers.
Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja after his Galle double century and Travis Head, almost certainly back in the middle order, are automatic selections so that just leaves two spots with Labuschagne, Green, teenage opener Sam Konstas and Josh Inglis, after his century on debut, in the mix.
The selectors have steadfastly kept the faith in Labuschagne despite the Queenslander’s century drought now extending to 14 Tests after he was the only Aussie top-order batter not to make a big score in Galle last week when he was dismissed for 20.
During this lean run, with his last ton coming in the fourth Ashes Test of 2023, he has averaged 24.75 while making 1387 from 26 innings at a pedestrian strike rate of 43.18.
Most concerningly is his tendency to fall cheaply – he has been out for less than 20 runs on 18 occasions during this stretch.
If he gets over that hump, he stays in with seven scores between 60 and 90 – his only other innings was one not out during a miniscule run-chase.
He has been out caught 19 times, mostly nicking to the wicketkeeper or the slips cordon as he has struggled to cope with movement from pace bowlers, who have claimed his wicket on 21 occasions.
Getting dropped, particularly when you are still relatively young like Labuschagne at 30, is not necessarily career-ending.
Many of Australia’s modern greats have felt the tap on the shoulder from selectors after going through rough patches.
Marnus Labuschagne in Galle. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)
How does Labuschagne’s current trot compare against some of those past masters who were dropped after establishing themselves in the team?
For the most part, the previous batters were not given nearly enough rope before they were told they would not be part of the next Test XI.
Justin Langer (2001): This was not the first time he lost his spot in the Test side but it was the last when he was omitted from the side for the start of the 2001 Ashes tour.
Langer was coming off a couple of lean series – in India where he scored 161 at 32.2 and a five-Test homestand against the West Indies where he contributed just 203 at 25.37.
But prior to that he was dominant in peeling off four centuries in nine Tests against Pakistan, India and New Zealand at a clip of 64.86.
Michael Slater (2001): The flamboyant opener’s career came to an abrupt end before the final Test of the Ashes tour when Langer was recalled ahead of him, compiling a century and never relinquishing his spot as Matthew Hayden’s new-ball partner.
In his final 14 Tests, he made 1517 at 38.04 with a ton and five half-centuries, a superior return to Labuschagne’s current predicament, but six straight scores of 25 or less in England forced the selectors to take action.
Mark Waugh (1993): He was dropped for the third Test of the tour of New Zealand for Damien Martyn after making just 25 from two innings in the opening pair of matches.
Four Tests earlier he had hit a typically stylish 112 against a fearsome West Indies attack but he had underperformed prior to that series with 83 runs at 13.8 in four clashes with India and a horror tour of Sri Lanka which yielded 61 runs among four ducks.
At an average of 22.13 and just 509 runs in his 14 Tests before getting dumped, Waugh’s returns are one of the few worse than Labuschagne’s recent struggles.
Ricky Ponting. (James Knowler/Getty Images)
Ricky Ponting (1996): A mere six Tests into his record-breaking career, Ponting was punted two matches into a home series against the West Indies after backing up a fighting 88 with scores of nine, nine and four against an attack featuring Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Ian Bishop.
Up until that point, he had recorded three half-centuries (should have been a ton on debut except for a horrendous umpiring decision on 96) in his 663 runs at 33. When he got another crack at Test cricket on the Ashes tour the following year, he broke through with 127 and went on to add another 12,000-plus runs while averaging over 50 to become an all-time great.
Damien Martyn (2005): Someone was going to pay the price for Australia’s first Ashes loss in nearly two decades and Martyn was sent packing after managing just 178 runs at 19.77 for the series.
Prior to the UK jaunt, he had smacked 310 at 142 at home to Pakistan, including two tons, and another century in the 235 at 78.33 he racked up on a three-Test tour of New Zealand.
Matthew Hayden (1997): After being leapfrogged late by Michael Slater to be Mark Taylor’s opening partner for the 1993 Ashes, Hayden made his Test debut the following year before he was finally given a chance to establish himself in the summer of 1996-97.
Hayden hammered 125 against an ailing Windies side but didn’t do much else in his first seven matches for the national side and was dispatched to Sheffield Shield duty after the 1997 series against South Africa with a Test average of just 21.75.
He didn’t get another chance until after Taylor retired but eventually established himself as a world-beater and lifted his average as high as 58.97 in 2004 before finishing with 8625 Test runs at a tick over 50.
Steve Waugh (1991): In possibly the most awkward of family dinners, he was informed of his dumping while at the table alongside the player who replaced him in his twin brother Mark.
After realising his prodigious potential in his breakthrough 1989 Ashes campaign, Waugh fell out of form over the next 12 months in making 244 at 32.86.
He spent six months out of the side before re-establishing his spot on the tour of the Caribbean and then becoming Australia’s most dominant batter of the 1990s.
(Clive Mason /Allsport)
Michael Clarke (2005): After a ton on debut in India the previous year and then a century in his first Test in Australia, the runs dried up and Clarke was dropped during the home series against the West Indies after 15 matches with just two half-centuries.
He averaged just 25.28 in cobbling together 531 runs during that span before returning to the side the following year when Damien Martyn surprisingly retired midway through the 2006-07 Ashes rout.
Simon Katich (2010): In what has to be one of the worst selection blunders of this century, the left-handed opener was axed during the 2010 Ashes even though he was one of the most reliable batters in a fragile line-up.
Using the current Labuschagne benchmark, Katich had scored 1291 runs in his final 14 Tests at 49.65, including two centuries as part of a dependable opening partnership with Shane Watson.
Shane Watson (2015): He was given the heave-ho five years later early in an Ashes campaign after a couple of below-par series against the Windies and India.
But if you look at his final 14 Tests, he amassed 1537 at 37.4 while reaching triple figures twice. He would definitely have survived longer if the current selection panel was in place.
Darren Lehmann (2004): He recently revealed he thought he stayed on a year too long in the Test team and told the selectors they were too slow to act when he was finally dropped for Watson after the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan.
He had struggled in the previous two series against New Zealand and India but over his final 14 Tests he hit three centuries, averaged 45.9 and tallied 1010 runs.
David Warner (2013): After a superb 123 not out in his second Test, 180 next series against India and another century against South Africa inside his first 11 matches for Australia, the left-handed opener looked set for a lengthy stint in the team.
But he was dropped after the disastrous 2013 tour of India when he eked out 195 runs at 24.37, his first below-par series in the national side.
Usman Khawaja (2019): He had felt the sting of the selectors’ verdicts a few times earlier in his career but this time it looked like this could be the end of his career.
Khawaja lost his spot three Tests into the 2019 Ashes tour after six scores of 40 or less.
Never mind the fact that he had clocked up an unbeaten 101 in his final hit at home before heading to the UK as well as a memorable 141 a few months prior to enable the Aussies to hold on for a draw against Pakistan in the UAE.
Usman Khawaja celebrates at Galle. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Travis Head (2023): This was supposedly a “horses for courses” brainwave selection because Head had previously struggled on turning decks but even so, he was punted at the start of the India tour despite three hundreds and a couple of 90s in the preceding 14 Tests.
The Australian selectors recently tried to point to this decision as an example of how they can make tough calls when necessary. Tough is not the adjective that most people would use to describe this blunder.
Cameron Green (2023): Green was considered surplus to requirements at the end of the Ashes tour after scoring 103 at 20.6. He was, however, coming off a five-match stretch prior to that series when he hit a hundred against India and averaged 68.
Mitchell Marsh (2024): Green’s replacement at all-rounder ended up becoming a batter who bowled occasionally as injuries piled up and when he could only muster 73 runs at 10.42 in the recent home series against India, he was replaced by Beau Webster.
But even if you use the current Labuschagne slump as a guide, Marsh’s final 14 Tests from his surprise Ashes return in 2023 included his scintillating century at Headingley and an average of 35.78, the most productive output of his stop-start career.
And the most famous form slump of all that didn’t end up in the player getting dropped …
Mark Taylor (1997): The Aussie skipper’s plight was fodder for the English tabloids and even reached the point where Prime Minister John Howard was going into bat for him, figuratively, thankfully not literally given the famous footage of his cricketing skills.
He had gone 11 Tests without raising the willow for even as much as a half-century and after 21 innings while averaging 18.35, he was on his last chance in the second innings of the Ashes opener in Birmingham when he made a stunning return to form with 129.
What is often overlooked is that he scored just four runs in his next five innings before eventually going back to being a consistent run-scorer at the top of the order, culminating in his historic 334 not out the following year in Pakistan.
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