Coach backs Marnus despite grim form admission

Australia’s coach Andrew McDonald admits Marnus Labuschagne could be performing a lot better but has backed him to stay in the side.

The No.3 batter scored only 1 and 2 in the first Test against New Zealand and hasn’t hit a double digit score in his past five innings’.

The 29-year-old’s last century was in the Ashes last July at Old Trafford.

Despite the lean run of form, McDonald doesn’t have concerns over Labuschagne’s spot in the side.

Marnus Labuschagne has struggled for form with the bat.

“I don’t think there’s any great concern from our point of view,” he said.

“We want the top six or seven batters 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.

“I said this last week, I said this a couple of weeks ago as well, over time there’s going to be some ebbs and flows in your career. I thought in the second innings (against New Zealand), and this is really hard to quantify but I though the intent and energy he brought to the crease (was positive), and it 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.

“We saw that in Sydney in the second innings, we saw that at Manchester as well where he came out and had the intent to score and put it back on the bowlers so that’s when we think he’s at his best.

“Sometimes the conditions don’t allow that as well so you have to absorb a little bit more but I think sometimes he undervalues even in difficult conditions when he’s showing that intent how much pressure he can put back on to the bowling units of the opponent.”

McDonald’s comments come after Pat Cummins responded emphatically “absolutely not” when asked after the first Test if Labuschagne’s position was under threat.

Cummins added him and the selectors are “very clear these six guys are the six best batters” in Australia.

When discussing Labuschagne’s form, McDonald was also asked about the Queenslander’s preparation and whether coaches need to put forward any advice around his workload.

“It’s combination, I think you’ve seen in the nets there’s a lot of chat that goes on with Marnus so there’s a bit of two-way conversations there,” he said.

“While we give him ownership, he’s always bouncing ideas off us and we’re also giving him ideas in terms of what his preparation should look like and all the players for that matter so we do have some structured sessions among the unstructured where we give the players the options of what they need to do to prepare.

“So it’s a combination of both and I like the fact he’s adjusted that. The sample size of one on the back of that small adjustment I don’t think is any need for change. I think over time that will serve him well so I think the changes he’s made will in the long-term pay off.”

The second Test begins on Friday. Australia’s next Test series isn’t until the home summer against India in December.