They managed to add only 45 runs combined in the WTC 2025 Final against South Africa.
Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine has come in support of their two veteran batters, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne, ahead of the Ashes 2025 against their arch-rivals England.
With England coming out for the Ashes, those high-quality international cricketers do not grow on trees. Great players are hard to replace. I’m backing both of those two to have a big 12 months,” he said in a video shared by the SEN Cricket.
The former player has recalled the retirement of another Australian great, David Warner. He emphasised how the entire cricketing fraternity of Australia had built up a criticising atmosphere around Warner and almost forced him to call it a day. However, after nearly an year, the nation is still looking for a proper replacement for the great Aussie opener.
“We’re very quick in this country, particularly with the cricket team, to move on players. If you look back to just before he retired to the six months leading into that, and the guy is one of our best ever cricketers, and everyone in the media and the casual cricket was ‘Oh, he’s gotta go.’ We’re two years down the track and we still haven’t cemented his replacement,” he added.
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Notably, Warner announced his retirement from international cricket in June 2024, following the early exit of Australia from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. The Aussies finished their campaign after two consecutive defeats against Afghanistan and India in the super-eight stage.
Warner piled up 8,786 runs in 112 Test matches, including 26 tons and 37 half-centuries. He was also a modern-day great in limited-overs cricket. The southpaw scored 6,932 runs in 161 ODI matches, with a total of 22 hundreds in the format. His T20I stats read 3,277 runs in 110 fixtures for Australia.
Despite of their recent struggles, Khawaja and Labuschagne have been two strong pillars of Australian cricket, especially in the red-ball format. Both of these players have been an integral part of the squad. The Pakistan-born batter, Khawaja, made his Test debut against England in January 2011. Since then, he has put up 5,936 runs in 81 matches, including 16 tons and 27 half-centuries in the format. Labuschagne has also scored 4,435 runs in 58 matches after making his debut against Pakistan in October 2018. His run-tally includes 11 centuries and 23 fifty-plus scores in the red-ball format.
However, after failing to defend the World Test Championship (WTC) title against South Africa, the Aussies will kick off the new WTC cycle for 2025-27 with a three-match series against the West Indies. The first fixture will commence on June 25, in Barbados. Later, they will host England for the five-match Ashes series, starting on November 21, 2025.
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