Australia have multiple options to choose from.
Australia head coach, Andrew McDonald, has indicated Marnus Labuschagne might partner Usman Khawaja at the top in the Ashes 2025. Several options are vying for that opening slot as the team continues to find a suitable replacement for David Warner, but no one has sealed it yet.
The incumbent, Sam Konstas, and another in line, Nathan McSweeney, failed in the opening round of the Sheffield Shield, and the likes of Marnus Labuschagne and Matthew Renshaw cashed in on a nice batting surface. While a solitary game on completely contrasting surfaces might be harsh to conclude, Labuschagne has apparently impressed McDonald with his improvements.
Talking to reporters earlier today, the head coach confirmed Labuschagne, who was dropped for the West Indies tour, remains a firm contender as an opener. McDonald confirmed that more than the output, he was impressed with the technical improvements in his game, which were visible during the red-ball tournament opener.
“We definitely see Marnus as an opening option. More impressive was the method that he applied, in the front half of that innings, in particular, against Tassie at AB Field. Sometimes it’s the way he’s going about it, subtle changes that he has made to his game. To see those implemented first up in Shield round one, big tick for Marnus for all the work he’s done and on the back of a little layoff as well.”
One major issue with Marnus Labuschagne was his tepid batting strike rate, where his initial instincts were to survive rather than look to score. While the method worked in the early phase, the pitches have lately been treacherous in Australia, and his approach meant that he wasn’t among runs, even when he played a considerable number of balls, because one of the balls was bound to dismiss him.
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Since 2024, on average, he has played around 51.29 balls per innings but struck at a mere 45.57, the lowest among all batters with at least 1200 deliveries. That proactiveness was visible in his Shield century, where he completed his ton at a strike rate of 64.93, with the help of 11 boundaries and a maximum, and ended with 77.66 in his 206-ball innings.
Even his two centuries in the One-Day Cup have come at 115.38 and 110.16, respectively, a noticeable shift from his career List A strike rate of 85.29. He has opened more scoring areas and worked on maximising every delivery rather than just looking to bat deep, an approach that won’t work in modern-day cricket.
This is an aspect McDonald and Cummins wanted him to work on, and it’s no wonder he has the coach’s backing after showing conscious effort to improve in this area. Now that he accesses more run-scoring zones, Labuschagne has already become better than Konstas as a Test batter, because of having a better technique against the moving ball.
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