Marnus form of no great concern
Australian coach Andrew McDonald is adamant there isn’t “any great concern” with star batter Marnus Labuschagne’s ongoing form slump declaring his short second innings stay in Wellington provided hope of an end in sight.
After achieving a comprehensive opening Test win over New Zealand in Wellington, Labuschagne was given the backing of captain Pat Cummins despite making just three runs in two innings, which dropped the Queenslander’s batting average below 50 for the first time since 2019.
Labuschagne has made just a single Test century in his past 20 Tests, and four consecutive single figures scores across his last four at bats.
But while McDonald said he and the coaching staff were aware of Labuschagne’s lack of output, change was not at the forefront of their minds.
“I don’t think there’s any great concern from our point of view,” McDonald said. “Can he perform better? No doubt about that. Does he know that he knows that? Is he working on it? Yes.
“I said this last week. I said it a couple of weeks ago as well, but over time, there’s going to be some ebbs and flows in your career.
“And I thought in the second innings, and this is really hard to sort of quantify but I thought the intent, the energy he brought to the crease, and it was only two runs, I don’t want to get carried away with two runs but that’s what we see when he’s at his best.”
Labuschagne averaged just below 60 at the end of 2022, but it’s a figure which has been on a rapid decline but he’s not on his own and McDonald conceded his batters had “left the door ajar” too often in recent matches.