Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne have the backing of Australia head coach Andrew McDonald as Australia enter the new World Test Championship cycle after conceding the Test mace to South Africa at Lord's.
Following their loss to the Proteas, questions are raising over whether the Aussies will tweak their squad and give some youngsters and fringe players a run or will they stick to the old horses, who have been doing the work for them in all these years.
Marnus Labuschagne's spot in the spotlight
Marnus Labuschagne's position in the team has been under the scanner after not-so-impressive returns in the recently concluded WTC cycle. The star batter scored 974 runs in 38 innings at an average of 27.82 with only one hundred and eight fifties to his name. He was sent up the order to open alongside Khawaja for the first time in his Test career and while he spent time in the middle, Labuschagne could not go big, tallying 17 and 22 in the two innings.
Khawaja was Australia's leading run-scorer in the previous cycle, having slammed 1428 runs in 39 innings at 44.47 with two tons and six half-centuries. However, his dismissals to Kagiso Rabada at Lord's reopened his struggles against pace bowling from round the wicket. He tallied a duck and six in the two innings in the final.
McDonald throws his weight behind Labuschagne, Khawaja
However, the Aussie coach has backed Khawaja and Labuschagne, knowing that the team had to rejig the opening combination a lot since the retirement of David Warner. "It was a big discussion leading into this Test match and I was on the record a couple of weeks ago talking about the need to bed down that opening combination," head coach Andrew McDonald said. "We've had a bit of musical chairs there so it might be the time."
On Labuschagne, McDonald said that he is a big part of the future. "He's a big part of the future of the team," McDonald said. "Anyone that averages 45, 46 in Test cricket at that age is important. We've got older players there that are closer to the end than the start. We've got some younger players that are coming in.
"If he can get his game in good order for the next four or five years, he can underpin that batting order. But at the moment, he'd be disappointed with the returns. He's missed out on big scores. But we're confident that he could return to his best and hence why we keep picking him. And at what point do we stop picking him?
"I think most players across their journey get dropped at some point in time. I think he had a positive week here where he worked on the right things and had a great prep. There's no harder worker than Marnus. Now it's really just about the returns. And at the moment, as I said, he'd be disappointed."
The head coach also threw his weight behind Khawaja, saying, "He's on contract, he's an important player. He gives us stability at his best at the top. And we like to look at our players at their best."
"No doubt, a couple of failures here and people then start to talk about maybe it's the end. I don't see an end date with the way he's training, the way he's preparing, the way he's moving. He went back to Shield cricket, got 100 last [season]. So I think he's got plenty of runs left in him. It'll come down to his inner drive and the way he prepares.
"It was a bit the same with Davey as well. We saw some positives in the way he moved. We knew that the runs were around the corner. We feel as though Usman's got a big part to play."
