Labuschagne Axed as Australia Confirm New No. 3 for New Zealand Tests

The decision had been hanging over Australian cricket for months. On Monday morning, George Bailey finally said it out loud: Marnus Labuschagne will not be considered for selection for the home Tests against New Zealand.

Australia will have a new No. 3 when the first Test begins at Perth's Optus Stadium on December 9, and the man who held the position through the last Ashes summer will instead be back with Queensland in the Sheffield Shield, trying to bat his way back into a side that has run out of patience.

"At this stage we won't be considering Marn for selection for certainly that first Test, but for the New Zealand series," Bailey said. "There's been a lot of speculation around his place in the team, and so I think this gives him a little bit of space and clears up a bit of conjecture as we work through the next round of Shield cricket."

The numbers behind the call are stark. Labuschagne, once the world's No. 1 ranked Test batter, made 131 runs at 21.83 in South Africa, the land of his birth, and finished the series with scores of 0 and 4 in the deciding Test in Cape Town. The manner of his dismissals hurt as much as the totals. In Gqeberha he holed out into the wind with Australia asked to follow on and needing to bat for more than four sessions to save the game. At Newlands he edged Simon Harmer to slip for a fifth-ball duck, then avoided a pair only by outside-edging a low full toss from Kagiso Rabada for four — before being trapped lbw leaving the ball two deliveries later, Australia two down inside the first over of the innings.

It has been a long slide. Labuschagne has not scored a Test hundred since the 2023 Ashes, 49 innings ago, and has not made a half-century at Test level in his last 16 innings, a drought stretching back to the first innings of the Gabba Test in last summer's Ashes. He was dropped from the side, though kept in the squad, during last year's tour of the Caribbean, and was recalled for the Ashes on the back of a run of centuries for Queensland. Since that recall he has averaged 23.66 in ten Tests, with two fifties from 19 innings.

Former captain Ricky Ponting had already called the situation plainly during the Top End series against Bangladesh in August, describing Labuschagne's spot as "untenable". The Australian hierarchy kept faith for the South African tour, but coach Andrew McDonald admitted after the 2-1 series defeat that a reassessment was coming. "We believed in Marnus for this tour, we'll have to reassess that as we move forward," McDonald said. "There's still a very good cricketer there. Every time he drops back to state level, he outperforms the others. But he hasn't taken his opportunity on this tour."

The selectors will pick the squad for the Black Caps series at the end of the next round of Sheffield Shield matches, which begin on Wednesday. For the 32-year-old Queenslander, the message is simple and unforgiving: the runs have to come now, at state level, or the door that has just closed may not open again.