Aussie batter Marnus Labuschagne was once again dismissed for a low score against Bangladesh in the second test on Saturday, managing just 4 runs which prompted former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting to ask for a change in the Australian team.
“Well look with this Aussie team and the selectors I admire what they’re trying to do with Marnus. I admire that they tried to get him and get him back to his best but it’s been way too long now. And I’m on record as saying I would have made that change at the start of this series because I think there was enough evidence for me to suggest that he was a long way from rediscovering his best,” Ponting said on 7Cricket.
“And he’ll look back at today, he was unlucky, there’s no doubt about that. But that tends to happen to you as well when you’re struggling and you’re trying to find some form and some rhythm. The worry that I had with him, I think there’s some technical deficiency there but he’s making the margin for error for the bowlers too great,” he added.
Ponting also said that there was some technical deficiency in Labuschagne’s game which makes it hard for the Australia No.3 to play off his back foot, something which he was adept at when he was in form.
“With the length, he can’t score off the back foot. If you can’t score off the back foot in Test cricket then batting becomes a hard game. That’s the great difference between when he was at his best and we highlighted some graphics earlier, three or four years ago where he’s averaging 65-68 for a test year. That was when he was scoring off front foot and back foot. I think the bowlers now know that they can run in a bowl anywhere from almost 10 metres to about four metres on off stump and out as wide as they want and he can’t hurt them,” Ponting said.
“So I well and truly think it’s time to have a look at somebody else. Don’t get me wrong I’m not one for making panic change just because we lost last week. It wasn’t about that. Guys that I played with they would tell you that I’d do everything I could to keep them in these players in my side. I didn’t want to make change but when something stretches out as long as it has now and it’s well over two years since he’s made a Test match hundred. If the numbers aren’t there, I was all about just picking on talent. And we’ve seen that it has worked in the past. There has to be one, two, three, four guys out there that when you watch them bat, they just make batting look that little bit easier than the others,” he added.
Labuschagne hasn’t had the best of times in this series, scoring just 1 and 31 in the first Test vs Bangladesh.
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