Steve Smith commended Marnus Labuschagne for bringing himself in contention for Test squad return for next month’s Ashes at home. After an extended fallow patch with the bat, Labuschagne had been dropped from the West Indies Tests earlier this year. However, he has been back amongst the runs in the ongoing Sheffield Shield, racking up centuries like it’s child’s play.
“He said to me at the start of the summer, ‘I’ll be in that Test team, come the first Test’. He’s backed up his words,” Smith said. “I sent him a message a couple of days ago, saying how proud I was of him. He’s obviously got dropped from the team and he’s just gone back and he’s got four hundreds in six hits.
“That’s a pretty big statement. He’s obviously not selected yet, but he’s done a lot of things right,” Smith added.
Replacing Cameron Green, Labuschagne recently returned to the ODI mix on the back of consistent domestic performances as two of his four centuries for his domestic side Queensland have materialized in the 50-over format. The top-order batter was overlooked earlier after he returned scores of 1 and 1 in the home ODIs against South Africa in August.
With that development, Australia had to make three changes for the series opener against India – with Josh Phillippe replacing Josh Inglis, whose recovery from a calf strain continues, while Adam Zampa missed out out due to familial obligations. From the second fixture onwards, Australia will have the services of Zampa, Carey and Inglis.
Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe, Matthew Renshaw, Matthew Short, Mitchell Starc
Inclusions from second ODI onwards: Adam Zampa, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis
