The knives are out for Marnus Labuschagne after a costly failure against India on Sunday night pushed his place in the Test side further into the spotlight.
Australia’s No.3 was relieved of some pressure to start the unlikely chase when captain Pat Cummins arrived as nightwatchman following debutant opener Nathan McSweeney’s four-ball duck.
But the skipper didn’t last and neither did Labuschagne, dismissed lbw without offering a shot on just his fifth ball.
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“A smile on his face but his heart’s going to be pounding,” James Brayshaw said on Channel 7 as Labuschagne marked his guard.
Labuschagne’s first scoring shot offered a positive change with World Cup winner Aaron Finch noting he had been critical in the first innings of the batsman’s “inability to want to hit the ball down the ground”.
But the might of Jasprit Bumrah proved too much to bear.
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A dot ball to start the Indian captain’s over made way for perhaps the most humiliating dismissal of Labuschagne’s career.
Expecting a high and wide delivery, the 30-year-old instead found himself falling forward in a failed attempt to save himself from being struck square on the pads.
“Labuschagne’s got it horribly wrong,” Brayshaw said.
His decision to waste a review made matters even worse for Australia at stumps on day three, needing to survive two days for an improbable draw — the 522 runs to win can hardly be considered — with just seven wickets remaining.
The dismissal itself, though, was bad enough for Labuschagne.
“You can handle playing a shot to a good ball and getting an outside edge,” ex-Test bowler Damien Fleming said on SEN.
“That type of dismissal is just not good enough from your No.3 in a tough battle.
“It was a good length, it was just outside off stump, it didn’t do anything extreme.”
Veteran journalist and 7Cricket contributor Peter Lalor said it was “inexplicable” for Labuschagne not to use his bat, while SEN commentator Gerard Whateley said it was proof of “a scrambled mind” and “lost technique”.
“You cannot go out there without the intention to use your bat. It’s so symbolic of where he finds himself in his game,” Whateley said.
“He’s going to have to be relieved of his place in the team.”
Labuschagne is just one Test removed from scoring a first-innings 90 in a win over New Zealand.
But that is a blip among eight scores of 10 or under in his past 10 completed innings.
Australian players’ painfully thin red-ball schedule has made it all the more difficult for struggling batsmen to build any confidence — yet Labuschagne entered the home summer having scored two centuries and averaging 58.50 from four English county matches.
“He’s been his normal self. He seems normal to me,” teammate Josh Hazlewood said moments after Labuschagne was out on Sunday night.
“I know he’s always a big thinker of the game, he loves talking cricket, playing cricket. He sleeps and breathes it, so yeah, I haven’t noticed anything different in Marnus.
“He’ll talk to the coaches and talk to probably Smithy, most of all, about his batting. They’re obviously very close, so hopefully things turn around quickly.”
The revelation that Labuschagne will continue to lean on Steve Smith “most of all” will not necessarily ease concern.
Smith, after all, has his own problems to solve: he was out for a golden duck in his first innings back at No.4 on day one.
Regardless, it would be unlike Australian selectors to make grand changes after one match in a five-Test series.
Even if they considered dropping him Labuschagne could yet be saved by their hesitance dating back to last summer.
When Smith replaced David Warner as an opener, Cameron Bancroft learned that banging the door down in the Sheffield Shield wasn’t enough.
Now he is enduring what would undoubtedly be the worst period of his career had the ball-tampering scandal never happened; his last 10 first-class innings read 12, 11, 3, 0, 0, 16, 8, 2, 0 and 0.
And so it is all but impossible for the selectors to rationalise dropping Labuschagne for his struggles, moving McSweeney to his preferred No.3 after backing him in at the top and then picking Bancroft to open.
“It’s a disaster, a one-off disaster at this stage,” wicketkeeping great Ian Healy said on SEN.
“(Australia) have been exposed for not having any match toughness and hardness because they had two weeks given to them to practise and freshen up. They should be better next Test.
“I would wait one more. If they’re still shaky and if certain individuals are still shaky in their roles, I think there will be changes.”