{"id":748,"date":"2026-11-02T02:02:53","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T02:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/02\/theres-still-a-very-good-cricketer-there-andrew-mcdonald-on-marnus-labuschagne\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T02:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T02:02:53","slug":"theres-still-a-very-good-cricketer-there-andrew-mcdonald-on-marnus-labuschagne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/02\/theres-still-a-very-good-cricketer-there-andrew-mcdonald-on-marnus-labuschagne\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s still a very good cricketer there\u201d \u2013 Andrew McDonald on Marnus Labuschagne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Updated on 10 seconds ago by Charbel Coorey<\/a><\/p>\n

Coach Andrew McDonald has called for calm as he and selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide review Australia\u2019s 2-1 series loss in South Africa. The result is a tough one to take for now the number-two ranked Test team as they found themselves in promising positions in Gqeberha and Cape Town but were unable to get the job done.<\/p>\n

High on the agenda is Marnus Labuschagne\u2019s place in the XI. The number three scored 131 runs at 21.83 and looked a dejected figure as he faced just eight balls across two innings at Newlands.<\/p>\n

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Australia persisted with Marnus Labuschagne for so long that he’s shot to bits as a result. #SAvAUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 CricBlog \"\u270d\" (@cric_blog) October 31, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Andrew McDonald defends decision to pick Marnus Labuschagne for South Africa tour<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The decision to persist with Labuschagne has come for great criticism from fans and former players<\/a>. Simon Katich was particularly vocal on SEN Radio<\/em>, saying the selectors have \u201cpotentially crucified a bloke\u2019s career\u201d given the number three averages just 24.2 since his last Test century in July 2023, some 49 innings ago.<\/p>\n

However, McDonald says playing for Australia doesn\u2019t do damage and Labuschagne remains a very good cricketer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I can say is that any opportunity that you get to play for Australia, I don\u2019t think damages you,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cI think there\u2019s even been critiquing of some of our younger players where they\u2019ve been placed and the harm that that may cause to their careers and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had some opportunities that he\u2019s missed on this tour in particular, so that\u2019ll be something in the next week or so that we\u2019ll get our heads around. We\u2019re not in a rush to make decisions. There\u2019s too much emotion right now, but yeah he hasn\u2019t taken his opportunity on this tour,\u201d McDonald continued, as quoted by Sydney Morning Herald<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believed in Marn for this tour. We\u2019ll have to reassess that as we move forward \u2026 there\u2019s still a very good cricketer there.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time he drops back to state level, he outperforms the others. But there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concern, however, is how timid Labuschagne looked<\/a> both before and during the Newlands Test. Reports suggested he looked flat at training in the leadup to the Test<\/a>, and that showed on the field as he batted very tentatively against Simon Harmer and Kagiso Rabada.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, McDonald backed Steve Smith (neck injury) and Nathan Lyon (form concerns) to start in the Test series against New Zealand which begins on December 9 in Perth.<\/p>\n

The post \u201cThere\u2019s still a very good cricketer there\u201d \u2013 Andrew McDonald on Marnus Labuschagne<\/a> appeared first on CricBlog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Updated on 10 seconds ago by Charbel Coorey Coach Andrew McDonald has called for calm as he and selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide review Australia\u2019s 2-1 series loss in South Africa. The result is a tough one to take for now the number-two ranked Test team as they found themselves in promising positions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricketkidunyya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}