Marnus Labuschagne continues to face intense scrutiny over his Test spot after making his comeback during the ongoing Ashes series, having been dropped during the West Indies tour earlier this year. He
did score a fifty each in the first two Tests but has since failed to cross 19 in four innings.
The Melbourne pitch on which the 4th Test is being played has proved to be a nightmare for the batters, and Labuschagne struggled on it too, having managed six and eight in the two innings. However, David Warner avoided blaming the pitch for the low scores of his former teammate at the MCG.
“It’s just that mode of dismissal again for Marnus Labuschagne,” Warner said after Labuschagne was caught by Joe Root in the slip cordon in Australia’s second innings on Day 2 of the 4th Test against England. “That’s the difference when you’ve got world-class bowling hitting that same handkerchief time and time again. It’s that angle that creates the bat plane to come down. He’ll be disappointed with himself, he’s been working hard on that.”
Mark Waugh dissected how England plotted Labuschagne’s dismissal.
“They’re just trying to work over that off-stump line. He got a couple that bounced a bit, and he’s starting to square up a bit (and) that hip comes through. That means the bat comes across the body, rather than a straight line … (he’s) not sure whether to play or leave, he’s in two minds. That squaring up is a bit of an issue,” Waugh said.
Labuschagne has now gone 888 days since he last scored a Test century for Australia, which incidentally came during the Ashes tour of England in 2023 when he scored 111 in the second innings. The closest he came to breaching three figures was in New Zealand when he scored 90 in Christchurch.
The 31-year-old, once ranked No. 1 batter in Tests, finishes 2025 with 271 runs from eight Tests at a poor average of 20.84.
