Labuschagne averages 64.80 against New Zealand, and Australia have dropped him for the series
George Bailey says Marnus Labuschagne won’t be considered for the four-Test series against New Zealand after a year of 252 runs at 22.90.
Nov 9, 2026
Marnus Labuschagne will not play in the first Test against New Zealand, and probably not in any of the four. George Bailey, Australia’s chair of selectors, said so on Monday, 9 November, a full month before the series opens in Perth on 9 December.
“At this stage we won’t be considering Marn for selection for certainly that first Test, but for the New Zealand series,” Bailey told reporters. “There’s been a lot of speculation around his place in the team, and so I think this gives him a little bit of space and clears up a bit of conjecture as we work through the next round of Shield cricket.”
It is the second time in 17 months that Labuschagne has lost his Test place. The first came on the West Indies tour of 2025, after the World Test Championship final.
How the runs dried up
His last Test hundred was in the 2023 Ashes at Old Trafford. He has batted 49 times since without making another one.
This year has been the worst of it. In six Tests in 2026 he made 252 runs at 22.90 and did not reach fifty once. After 48 and 37 in the Sydney Ashes Test in January, he scored 36 in two Tests against Bangladesh, then went to South Africa and made 131 in three, with a top score of 39. The last Test there, at Newlands, brought 0 and 4. Bangladesh won in Darwin before Australia levelled that series 1-1, and South Africa took theirs 2-1.
The fall is steep because the peak was so high. Labuschagne averaged 60.82 after his first 30 Tests and went to No. 1 in the ICC Test batting rankings. After 68 Tests he averages 42.64, with 4,861 runs and 11 hundreds.
The opponent he will miss
There is an awkward detail in all this. Only against West Indies does Labuschagne average more than he does against New Zealand. In five Tests against them he has 648 runs at 64.80, including the 215 he made at the SCG in January 2020, still his highest Test score.
I don’t think the selectors had much choice. A batter who has gone 49 innings without a hundred can’t keep his place on the strength of a series played nearly seven years ago, however fond the memory of that double hundred.
What it means for the India tour
After New Zealand, Australia head to India for a five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series from 21 January to 3 March 2027, with the first Test in Nagpur. Bailey did not shut the door on Labuschagne being part of it.
“It’s still possible, absolutely,” he said. “I think we all know how good and how effective Marnus can be at his best. But that performance hasn’t been there.”
Labuschagne has played four Tests in India, all on the 2023 tour, and made 244 runs at 40.66 with a highest score of 63 not out. That is a long way above the 22.90 he has managed this year. It won’t bring him back on its own, though. Two months of Shield runs for Queensland might.
Back to the Shield
He will captain Queensland against Tasmania in the fourth round of the Sheffield Shield, which starts on Wednesday, 11 November. Bailey said the Test squad for Perth would be named after that round.
The round after it, from 22 November, puts Queensland against New South Wales. Steve Smith is due to play in that one, so his second game back with Queensland will be against his old Test partner.