Cliff Notes – Labuschagne to reset after leanest run-scoring summer
- Marnus Labuschagne will take a break before returning to Glamorgan in English county cricket to regain his form after a disappointing summer, averaging 25.63 in Test cricket.
- His recent performances, including a first-innings duck and a second innings of 61 in the Sheffield Shield final, have raised concerns about his position in the Australian Test squad amid competition from emerging players.
Labuschagne to reset after leanest run-scoring summer
Marnus Labuschagne will rest, then head to English county cricket in a bid to rediscover peak form after his leanest run-scoring summer.
Labuschagne will have another stint with Glamorgan before Australia’s World Test Championship final against South Africa in June. In Test cricket in 2024-25, Labuschagne averaged 25.63 – his lowest return since his 2018 Test debut – and didn’t score a century.
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“It has been a little bit of a whirlwind,” Labuschagne said. “I have played some really good innings here and there, I have just probably not nailed it as much as I would have liked.”
Labuschagne captained Queensland in a four-wicket loss to South Australia in the Sheffield Shield final.
And the 30-year-old, whose overall Test average has dipped to 46.76, said his dismissals in the final in Adelaide summed up his summer.
Marnus Labuschagne takes on the short ball Getty Images
Labuschagne fell for a leg-side trap for a first-innings duck, caught when flicking to leg gully. In the second, he was well-settled on 61 before being caught at deep square leg from a half-hearted swipe at a short ball.
“That dismissal, if I am playing my best I am not making those errors,” he said.
In the home Test series against India, Labuschagne played important knocks of 70 and 72 in Melbourne’s Boxing Day Test. But his other scores against the Indians were meagre – 12, 1, 2 and 6. In the two-Test away series in Sri Lanka he made 20, 4 and 26 not out.
Some pundits believe those returns could threaten Labuschagne’s Test spot, given the looming return from injury of Cameron Green, the emergence of SA’s triumphant Shield captain Nathan McSweeney, Josh Inglis’ century on Test debut and the rise of opener Sam Konstas. But Labuschagne said his summer wasn’t all doom and gloom.
“There’s a lot to like about how I played and how I went about it,” he said. “But just to get back to my best where I’m scoring hundreds, I am one of those players that just want to continue to grow and learn and keep finding that form.”