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McDonald backs Labuschagne, not concerned about Konstas missing out on Sri Lanka experience
Lachlan Geleit • February 5th, 2025 5:19 pm
Australia men’s coach Andrew McDonald can’t foresee a situation where Marnus Labuschagne is left out of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle.
Labsuchagne made just 20 in the huge first Test win while the rest of Australia’s top six cashed in. The Queenslander is also coming off a mediocre summer where he made 232 runs at an average of 25.77.
While some are again questioning the No.3’s spot in the XI, McDonald is backing Labuschagne against spin, noting that he’s proven himself in Galle previously with a score of 104 the last time the Aussies toured Sri Lanka.
“No, not from our end,” McDonald told SEN Whateley in regard to whether there are any concerns about Labuschagne’s spot in the team.
“The top six will likely stay the same and you could probably extend that out to the top seven, I think they functioned well as a unit.
“We had a slight shift in the order of events for our training session based upon different workloads required in that main session, so there was nothing to read into that.
“We firmly believe that Marnus is a good player of spin, he’s been here before and he’s made a century at this ground also.
“With the way that the unit functioned in the first game, it's hard to see why we wouldn't go back there again.”
One reason why some, including Gerard Whateley, were calling for Labuschagne to lose his spot in the side was so that Sam Konstas could gain some experience in sub-continental conditions.
While it was tempting to play the 19-year-old after his efforts in Melbourne and Sydney, McDonald says Test selection will always be viewed with a ‘win now’ mentality and he’s not concerned about Konstas missing out on gaining experience in the conditions with an Australia A red-ball tour of India set for later this year.
“We prioritise every Test match and we've been on the record around that numerous times,” McDonald said.
“We have that as our underpinning philosophy in making decisions so to go against that potentially shifts the group's thinking around how we prioritize every Test match.
“We feel as though the Australia A program has some great scope for development of players, and later on this year there'll be a group of players that head over to India and play in spinning conditions in long format cricket, so we feel as though that will bridge the gap, our Australia A programs.
“It would have been tempting to play him last game, but we had a plan around getting Travis Head to the top of the order, and Usman is one of our best players of spin which unfolded.
“So unfortunately, the squeeze was tight at the top, and we felt that was the best decision for this moment and respecting every Test match that we play.”
The second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia begins at 3:30pm (AEDT) on Thursday. Listen to every ball LIVE on SEN and the SEN app.
Listen to McDonald’s full chat with Whateley below.
