Australia captain Pat Cummins dubs Marnus Labuschagne as one of the six best Australia batters at present. His remarks come in the wake of yet another poor show by the batter in NZ vs AUS 1st Test. Both Cummins and coach McDonald assert the batter is working on himself constantly to improve.
‘Absolutely not’: Labuschagne not finished
“Absolutely not,” Cummins said. “I think he’d be the first to admit he’d like to score some more runs. And it’s not through lack of trying in the nets. I think particularly that second innings was just one of those ones down leg. We’re very clear that these six guys are the six best batters in Australia and although at times they might not have clicked altogether at once the story of our team has been someone’s being able to stand up when they need to.”
In his last three Tests, he has posted 10, 1*, 3, 5, 1 and 2. His career Test average has dropped below 50, having been above 60 in December 2022.
“I don’t think there’s any great concern from our point of view,” McDonald said. “We want the top six, seven batters to be performing as a collective. So I think while the rest are performing around that and you’re winning games of cricket, I think the concern levels are fractionally lower.
“Can he perform better? No doubt about that. Does he know that? He knows that. Is he working on it? Yes.
“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 and the energy he brought to the crease, and that was only two runs so I don’t want to get carried away with two runs, but that’s what we see when he’s at his best.
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