Ponting says it is well and truly time to move on, and Labuschagne’s numbers make him hard to argue with

Marnus Labuschagne got a bad ball and a worse outcome at Mackay. Shoriful Islam angled one in, Labuschagne had shuffled far enough across to leave leg stump showing, and the ball hit his thigh pad and rolled back onto the stumps. Four runs, nine balls, and the sort of dismissal that reads as rotten luck on any other week.

He never got the chance to answer it. Australia won by an innings and 51 runs, so there was no second knock. His tour finished with 36 runs from three innings, and Australia’s Test squad for a three-match tour of South Africa is due to be named in early September.

That is the whole problem, and it has very little to do with one delivery.

The numbers behind the argument

Labuschagne last made a Test hundred in July 2023, at Old Trafford. Since that innings he has averaged 24.69. Measured from the start of the 2023-24 season, the figure is 25.43. Either way it is a number you would expect from a lower-middle-order batter having a lean patch, not from a man who held the No. 1 Test batting ranking until the middle of 2023.

He was dropped for the tour of West Indies last year, dominated domestic cricket, and was recalled for the start of the Ashes. The recall was the fair thing to do and it has not worked. Against Bangladesh he made 1, 31 and 4. He said himself that the 31 in Darwin came apart because he wanted to “rush a bit” and played a shot he did not need to play.

Ponting was careful about how he said it

Ricky Ponting’s verdict on Channel 7 got quoted everywhere for the sharp line at the end of it, but the interesting part was how much groundwork he laid first.

“I admire what they are trying to do with Marnus,” Ponting said of the selectors. “I admire that they tried to get him and get him back to his best, but it’s been way too long now. I’m on record as saying I would have made that change at the start of this series because I think there was enough evidence for me to suggest that he was a long way from rediscovering his best.”

He then made a point of separating the case from the result. “Don’t get me wrong I’m not one for making panic change just because we lost last week. It wasn’t about that. Guys that I played with they would tell you that I’d do everything I could to keep them in these players in my side. I didn’t want to make change but when something stretches out as long as it has now and it’s well over two years since he’s made a Test match hundred.”

The technical diagnosis was the most damaging bit. “I think there’s some technical deficiency there but he’s making the margin for error for the bowlers too great,” Ponting said. “With the length, he can’t score off the back foot. If you can’t score off the back foot in Test cricket then batting becomes a hard game. So I well and truly think it’s time to have a look at somebody else.”

Simon Katich, also on Channel 7, described the same thing from a different angle. “He’s finding himself in positions at the crease where he’s just not really committing one way or the other, rather than a front foot or the back foot, once that ball is released. He’s in no man’s land.”

Mark Waugh went furthest. “How many more chances does he get?” he asked on Fox Cricket. “He might have played his last game for Australia.” Alyssa Healy wanted the change made for South Africa: “there is no reason why not anymore because we are failing as is.”

The people who have to make the call see it differently

Not everyone in the Australian set-up is where the commentary box is. Pat Cummins said the day before the Test that from bowling at Labuschagne in the nets he thought he was close, and told him to stop tinkering and keep it simple. Andrew McDonald, more guardedly, said Labuschagne “needs some big runs”.

Both of those are the things you say about a player you still want. But the selectors have already shown this month that they will move on someone quickly. Jake Weatherald was dropped after six Tests on the back of 23 and 0 in Darwin, when almost everyone expected he would get both matches against Bangladesh. Matt Renshaw came in for his first Test since 2023 and made 8.

That is the part that makes Labuschagne’s position awkward rather than merely uncomfortable. If a young opener can be cut after six Tests, the argument that a former No. 1 should keep getting innings on reputation has already been abandoned by the people making the decisions.

What I think happens

My guess is that Labuschagne is named for South Africa anyway, and that this is the wrong call.

The instinct to keep him is understandable. Australia have just lost a Test to Bangladesh, drawn a series they expected to win, and a batting order in flux is not what any selector wants going into three Tests against South African seam. Labuschagne is the known quantity, and known quantities feel safe when things are wobbling.

But three years without a Test hundred stops being a slump at some point and simply becomes the number, and the case for waiting has already been made and lost twice. Ponting is right that this stopped being about one bad week some time ago. If the selectors do keep him, the honest version is that they should say it is the last look, because the alternative is finding out in South Africa what they could have found out against Bangladesh.

None of which is Labuschagne’s fault, exactly. He did the domestic runs when he was asked to, and he took the drop last year without complaint. He is still the same obsessive who worked his way to the top of the world rankings in the first place, and that version of him might well come back. It just has not yet, and Test teams do not have unlimited room to wait.

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