Marnus Labuschagne‘s difficult run with the bat has continued, with former Australia captain Ricky Ponting calling for the No. 3 batter to make way for someone else.Labuschagne scored only four runs in Australia’s first innings of the second Test against Bangladesh in Mackay on Saturday. Shoriful Islam bowled him after the ball brushed his pad before hitting the stumps.The latest failure has added to Labuschagne’s growing problems. He has not scored a half-century in his last 10 innings and has not made a century since the Ashes in 2023.Labuschagne has scored only 170 runs in these 10 innings, with 48 his highest score.
Labuschagne’s last 10 innings
| No. | Runs | Opposition | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | England | Brisbane | Dec 4, 2025 |
| 2 | 19 | England | Adelaide | Dec 17, 2025 |
| 3 | 13 | England | Adelaide | Dec 17, 2025 |
| 4 | 6 | England | Melbourne | Dec 26, 2025 |
| 5 | 8 | England | Melbourne | Dec 26, 2025 |
| 6 | 48 | England | Sydney | Jan 4, 2026 |
| 7 | 37 | England | Sydney | Jan 4, 2026 |
| 8 | 1 | Bangladesh | Darwin | Aug 13, 2026 |
| 9 | 31 | Bangladesh | Darwin | Aug 13, 2026 |
| 10 | 4 | Bangladesh | Mackay | Aug 22, 2026 |
| Total runs | 170 | |||
| Average | 17.00 |
‘It’s well and truly time to have a look at somebody else’
Ponting believes Australia should have made a change before the ongoing series.“I admire what they’re (selectors) trying to do to get him back to his best,” Ponting said on Channel7.“But it’s been way too long now. I would have made the change at the start of this series. There’s some technical deficiency there, but he’s making the margin for error for the bowlers too great. He can’t score off the back foot, and if you can’t score off the back foot in Test cricket, batting becomes a hard game. Bowlers now know they can bowl anywhere from 10 metres to four metres on off stump and as wide as they want, and he can’t hurt them. It’s well and truly time to have a look at somebody else,” he said.
Ponting wanted changes after Darwin loss
Ponting had already urged Australia to bring younger players into the top order after their defeat against Bangladesh in the first Test in Darwin. He said he would normally be reluctant to break up an established group, but believed the recent performances had made a change necessary.“Look, I’m the last one I want to make a change. As a captain or as a player, I wanted to keep the group together. It has to get to a bad point before I start saying you ought to leave somebody out. But there had been enough evidence for me coming here to suggest that they weren’t going to lose anything or much at all by starting that regeneration, by maybe bringing in another opener, by maybe bringing in someone at No.3. I think that that has to happen,” he had said.
