Aussie coach hits back over brutal Marnus downfall as reveals made on Smith, Lyon Test futures

Australian coach Andrew McDonald has challenged claims the national selectors played a role in “crucifying” Marnus Labuschagne, whose Test career is in peril after he endured a torrid tour of South Africa.

The Queenslander will join his teammates in flying back to Australia on Monday after a soul-destroying finale in Cape Town last week but is highly unlikely to be with the team in Perth next month for the opening Test of the series against New Zealand.

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The decision to retain the 32-year-old for the South Africa tour after a wretched run of form drew criticism from several quarters, with former Test opener Simon Katich saying the selectors had erred badly by continuing to pick him.

McDonald said he would “not respond to those comments, first and foremost” when arguing that the opportunity to represent Australia was always a good thing for a player and not something that “damages you”.

But he did say that Labuschagne’s international future would be assessed in coming weeks after he failed to deliver in South Africa, with the man once ranked the world’s No.1 Test batsman bereft of confidence in Newlands.

“He’s had some opportunities that he’s missed on this tour in particular, so that’ll be something in the next week or so that we’ll get our heads around, and we’re not in a rush to make decisions. There’s too much emotion (post the series loss) but he hasn’t taken his opportunity on this tour,” he said.

Despite the dismal batting displays in the first innings in Gqeberha and the disastrous failure in the second innings at Newlands, McDonald is adamant there is batting depth around the country, and that includes Labuschagne.

Matthew Renshaw, Travis Head and Josh Inglis made centuries on the tour and the Australian tail, while outscored by their counterparts, at least occupied the crease for extended periods in a show of defiance in most innings.

But the collapses in three of the last four innings - McDonald believes Australia let the series slide when failing to consolidate when losing 6-59 on the third day of the decider after starting the day well ahead - are extremely concerning.

“I think there’s been even critiquing of some of our younger players (as to) where they’ve been placed and, you know, the harm that that may cause to their careers and things like that, but I think an opportunity to play for Australia, whenever that is, (is a positive),” McDonald said.

“You don’t get the perfect place all the time for everyone. Sometimes people have got to play against India. Sometimes people have got to go to the subcontinent. But the good thing is we believe in them strongly enough to select them.

“Now we believed in Marn for this tour. We’ll have to reassess that as we move forward (and) others will sit there and say what that means for him. There’ll be a lot of speculation, but there’s still a very good cricketer there.

“Every time he drops back to state level, he outperforms the others. But there’s some state cricket going on at the moment as well, which is going to give us a great runway for what the New Zealand selections will look like, and we’ve had an Australia A tour as well, so we feel like we’ve got batting depth there.

“I think people catastrophise sometimes about the lack of depth (but) there are very good players in our Shield system.”

At the Cricket Australia annual general meeting last week, both outgoing chairman Mike Baird and current chief executive Todd Greenberg spoke glowingly of McDonald and the current coaching hierarchy and said they were looking to extend his current contract, which runs to the end of the 2027 World Cup held in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

McDonald confirmed he was in the midst of negotiations but said the primary focus was on the next 10 Tests Australia plays featuring the home summer against New Zealand, the five-match Border-Gavaskar Tour of India and the 150th anniversary Test at the MCG against England in early March.

“There has been some discussion, so I won’t hide away from that,” he said.

“But my firm focus is we’ve got 10 Test matches in the next three months, so I’m looking at that, and we’re always continuing to discuss what everything looks like with every staff member. (That includes) the workloads that are attached to that, the players, the planning, and all that sort of stuff.

“But as it sits at the moment, my focus is this next period of time up to the 150th, and then we’ll get April, May to sit back and look at it and plan for an Ashes ahead of that. Hopefully, World Test Championship (as well but) we’re a little bit up against it now.”

The brittle batting has swung the focus on to Michael Di Venuto, the assistant in charge of this category, but McDonald said the responsibility for sharpening and enhancing a batsman’s skill set was shared broadly among the group.

It is notable that while the veteran attack was unable to bowl the Proteas out as expected on Day 4 in Newlands, every single South African batsman spoke about how difficult they remained to face and how their was no reprieve in their approach.

Tellingly, while Renshaw received praise for his defiance and Head and Inglis were also applauded, rarely in any of the more than 20 press conferences the South Africans spoke at was there chatter as to how they would struggle to bowl Australia out.

But it was evident across the tour of South Africa that while the De Venuto worked at length in the nets, several assistants including the head coach were on hand to chat and offer guidance and advice to the top order.

“It’s a collaborative approach as a coaching unit and you would have seen that as well,” McDonald said.

“Michael works extremely hard with a lot of players, but not all the players. Some of the players are shared around with different coaches and different skill sets that they gravitate towards. I think you would have seen Cooper Connolly working incredibly hard with James Franklin on his spin work in PE (Gqeberha). So we share that load.

“He does lead that area, so whenever you’ve got some decisions to make in terms of what are we doing with the batting and how we’re planning it, that’s got to go back through Michael.

“But a lot of the coaches work across a lot of players (and) we all help and assist in that area, so we feel as though we’ve got a broad range of skill sets in there, and I mean, we share that accountability.”

What is certain is that both Nathan Lyon and Steve Smith will be in the XI in Perth, barring anything unforeseen.

The Smith situation has been widely discussed after he withdrew on the morning of the decider with a neck injury, with a blocking injection failing to free him up enough to feel confident batting against the Proteas.

“I’ve got no knowledge to the counter of that so, yes, we are planning on him to play against New Zealand in Test one in Perth,” the Aussie head coach said.

“I think first and foremost it’s understanding what’s going on with the neck issue and one of the things I always consider in that moment is ‘Okay, if this happens again, what do we need? It’s happened now. What do we need to do?’

“(We need to) make sure it doesn’t happen again, and give (him) the best preparation that we possibly can. So there’ll be there’ll be Shield cricket (before New Zealand). There’s opportunities for him. He’ll be well prepared for the Test match.”

Lyon was out-bowled by man of the match Simon Harmer in Newlands but toiled exhaustively on Day 4, with the Australians assessing his ability to restrict the South Africans from end as extremely important in both Durban and Newlands.

The veteran did not get the wickets he would have been chasing in the second innings, particularly after he snared Temba Bavuma shortly before stumps on Day 3, with Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder handling him well, albeit with respect.

“I don’t think it’s something to review now,” McDonald said.

“I think we (will) sit back and we’ll go through Shield cricket. Nathan will be preparing for the first Test match.”

It might sound strange given the series loss, with both Pat Cummins and McDonald lamenting Australia’s failure to be ruthless in critical moments when they had control at St George’s Park and in Newlands, but the Aussie coach was taking a glass-half full approach with a view to the future.

He believes Green and Inglis demonstrated their wares when returning from injury in the loss and said Connolly will benefit from being around the squad, as disappointing as his shot to get out in the second innings in Newlands was.

“We are a very good cricket team with a lot of very good players in there, and some legends of the game who, down the path, they will be acknowledged as legends of the game, so we’ve got to balance that out with who comes in and what the next decisions are,” McDonald said.

“If you looked at the batting unit, I think we walk away in a stronger position with Green - it was an injury that Cam did early in the in the series - but he’s got two away Test hundreds.

“We know how difficult it is to play away and the challenge is always greater when you play away in foreign conditions and you get challenged in different ways and there’s a reason why a lot of teams don’t win on the road. It’s difficult.

“And that’s not an excuse. We felt as though we were good enough to come here and win this series, but we’re always going to have decisions to make, in particular around the age profile of our team, so we’re probably asking ourselves the same questions as you guys are.”