Considered among the best Test batters in the world, Marnus Labuschagne now finds himself out of the Australia team. How did he slip so far down? Aadya Sharma examines.
"Did I feel like I was going to lose my spot? I'd say no”.
A year-and-a-half ago, Marnus Labuschagne briefly made his way out of a form dip, scoring a face-saving 90 against New Zealand at Christchurch. In the six innings prior to that, he hadn’t crossed 10.
He sounded dead sure the selectors would continue to persist with him. They did, for two series and a World Test Championship final. But now, he has been dropped.
Labuschagne started last year as one of the top-five ranked Test batters in the world. What happened to him?
The home-away split
Ever since he properly became a part of Australia’s lineup – the 2019 Ashes, to be precise – Labuschagne has enjoyed a largely undisturbed run at No.3. He’s batted there 89 times overall, scoring more runs than anyone at that position since his Test debut.
Exactly 50 of those have been at home (the most for anyone), where he averages 60.20, scoring nine out of his 11 hundreds in familiar shores.
It forms a clear bias: away from home and in neutral venues, the average falls to 35.11.
Home form has deserted him
A large part of Labuschagne’s success has been built around home dominance. However, that has not been the case since the start of last year. From his debut (October 2018) until the end of 2023, no one scored more runs than Labuschagne in Australia (2,855). Among all those who batted at least five times, he had the best average (55.98). During this period, he hit nine centuries, the most.
The readings aren’t as pretty since: since the start of 2024 in Australia, he averages 28.69.
And while this corresponds with the decline in top-six batting averages during those periods in Australia (34.65 versus 26.18), Labuschagne’s dive has been very sharp for a batter whose success circled so prominently around scoring at home.
Essentially, Labuschagne was much higher than the average during his peak, but is now only a touch above the average. In seven of his 15 innings, he has been dismissed in single digits.
Travel travails
Labuschagne has batted 48 times outside Australia. He’s got a century apiece in England and Sri Lanka, and averages over 40 in India. On the surface, it looks quite decent.
Between September 2019 and March 2022, he did not play a single game away from home, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A major part of that coincided with his time as the No.1 (or No.2) ranked Test batter. Since then, he’s travelled to Pakistan, Sri Lanka (twice), India, England and New Zealand, averaging 33.70.
Going deeper into those away numbers, he’s crossed fifty just six times in 37 attempts in that period. The lopsidedness started to have a significant bearing on his numbers as a whole. The slide from the top perch of the rankings then happened naturally.
Interestingly, only one fifty-plus score has resulted in a win – the 90 in Christchurch. In the same period, Labuschagne averaged just 25.87 in wins outside Australia. For context, Australia have won ten, lost six and drawn four.
In 2024 & 2025, his average outside Australia reads 24.75 and 22.25 respectively.
With a five-innings cutoff, Labuschagne’s average (33.70) ranks fifth out of eight among Australia’s top-six batters.
Losing the platform
Australia’s top order has gone through some rough waters over the last couple of years. Usman Khawaja’s opening partners have changed several times since David Warner’s final Test in January 2024. Khawaja’s form nosedived too.
In the period from 2019 to 2023, Khawaja averaged 58.21. Post 2024, he averages 26.42. There’s an argument to suggest that it’s had a cascading effect on Labuschagne, walking in at one-down.
For the rest of Australia’s top batters, the dip is not as heavy. Steve Smith’s average has changed from 52.79 to 48.38. Travis Head, the leading run-getter in this period, has encountered a slight dip himself from 51.25 to 48.08. But these correspond to a general dip in batting averages: 35.85 to 32.51.
As for the 38-year-old Khawaja, he’s shown signs of recovery, averaging 57.33 this year, largely thanks to a double-ton in Sri Lanka. For a 30-year-old Labuschagne, the expectations are higher.
The luck factor
Labuschagne’s early success was assisted by an intriguing factor: luck. Many have observed, without really taking it seriously as inflating his numbers, that Labuschagne has regularly benefitted from dropped catches and other reprieves. David Warner cheekily said it out loud once: “Labuschagne is the luckiest cricketer in the world”.
It came after his 103 against England in the 2022 Adelaide Test, where he was dropped at least three times, and got another dismissal overturned after a no-ball was detected.
There’s no dearth of examples: during his double-century against the West Indies the same year, he was dropped twice. More recently, he was dropped on day one of India’s tour, and got lucky again in the fourth Test, when a reprieve allowed him to make a fifty, his most recent in Tests.
According to CricViz, catch success against him off quicks stood at 48 per cent between Aug 2019 and Jan 2022. For other batters, the same number stood at 80 per cent.
However, his luck seems to be running out lately. From Jan 2022 to Dec 2024, catching success off him is actually a touch more (83 per cent) compared to the average batter (81 per cent). The bottom line is, Labuschagne’s fortunes have dried up in more ways than one.
Loss of fluency
Closely related to his parched run-scoring is his lack of fluency of late. According to CricViz, Labuschagne left 35 per cent of pace deliveries across 2024, the most he has in his career. His strike-rate from the start of 2023 has been 44.25, much lower than his career figure of 51.67, denting an overall number that used to range in the mid-50s during his best years.
The situation is compounded by how visible the struggle is: against India – despite his reprieve – Labuschagne scratched around for 99 minutes in the Perth Test, managing two runs off 52 deliveries. It’s an Australia record for the slowest Test scoring rate for a 50+ ball knock.
Labuschagne’s strike-rate at the end of:
10th Test (2019) | 53.31 |
20th Test (2021) | 53.50 |
30th Test (2022) | 56.04 |
40th Test (2023) | 53.73 |
50th Test (2024) | 52.36 |
58th Test (2025)* | 51.67 |
"I mean, his strike rate has plummeted over the last 18 months,” Aaron Finch told Cricinfo earlier this month. “He is not putting any pressure back on the opposition at all. And when you're batting in that position, you have to be prepared to counterattack at certain times.”
Labuschagne versus pace over the years
Year | Average |
2019 | 55.46 |
2020 | 76.00 |
2021 | 74.60 |
2022 | 57.10 |
2023 | 33.66 |
2024 | 27.07 |
2025 | 12.50 |
Against pace bowlers since 2024, 16 of his 24 dismissals (66 per cent) have been caught. Between 2018 and 2022, 58 per cent of his dismissals were caught, perhaps helped along by the low catching rate.
After the Champions Trophy, Labuschagne went to play the Sheffield Shield and County Championship, but there was very little sign of recovery. For Queensland, his scores read 23, 0, 61, while for Glamorgan, he managed 0, 4 and 23. In a last-ditch effort, Australia gave him an opening spot in the WTC final, but scores of 17 & 22 proved to be the final nail in the coffin.
What’s next?
Labuschagne can very well return; top-ranked batters don’t disappear overnight. But it’s evident that the selectors are open to look elsewhere: “Marnus at his best can be a really important member of this team,” chief selector George Bailey insisted after dropping him. “He understands his output hasn’t been at the level we, or he, expects.
“We will continue working with him on the areas of his game we feel he needs to rediscover. We continue to value his skill and expect him to work through the challenge positively.”
In his place, Australia have brought in Josh Inglis and Sam Konstas. Dead opposite to Labuschagne’s style is Inglis, who blasted his way to 94-ball 102 on debut, making a serious case for himself in Test cricket. In Konstas, Australia have another young, adventurous top-order option.
Labuschagne doesn’t feel as indispensable as he used to. How he gets out of this quagmire could very well define how his Test career is remembered.
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