Former Test captain Mark Taylor believes Marnus Labuschagne's downturn in form is no reason to panic just yet.
While Labuschagne will still end the year with an enviable career average of 50.31, he averaged only 34.91 from his 25 innings this year, and scored only the one century – at Manchester during the Ashes.
In 2022, he scored four Test centuries, including a stunning run of 201, 104 not out and 163 to start the home summer against the West Indies.
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In this series against Pakistan, he's recorded scores of 16, 2, 63 and 4 in the first two Tests.
These performances have led to some suggestion opposition bowling attacks finally have him and his quirks worked out.
But Taylor said Labuschagne's explosive arrival on the Test arena has meant expectations of him are somewhat higher than they might otherwise have been.
Taylor pointed out his first-class average for Queensland was in the low-30s when he was concussion-subbed in to replace Steve Smith during the Lord's Ashes Test in 2019.
He then rattled off four successive fifties and scored three successive tons at the back end of the year to finish 2019 with a Test average of 64.94.
Taylor also pointed out Labuschagne was dropped far more than any other batter in world cricket. To the end of 2022, he had been out caught on 20 occasions, but had been dropped 16 times.
"So he's gone from the guy averaging 30-odd in first class cricket to 60 in Test cricket, there's no doubt he's had this magnificent start to his career," Taylor told Wide World of Sports.
"It can happen, because you honestly start believing you're a better player than what you maybe showed in first class cricket, and you start playing like a better player.
"Couple that with sides not knowing where to bowl to you… now he's become a big wicket for sides.
"So, A: they're spending more time working on him, B: they're bowling better to him and he's not getting maybe the drops that he did at the start of his career, and C: a little bit of loss of form and all of a sudden you're averaging 36 this year."
Taylor said this fluctuation in form happens to the best of Test batters, but how Labuschagne deals it would become his next career "evolution".
Having said that, Taylor believes Labuschagne's second innings dismissal against Pakistan on Thursday – caught behind trying to flick one off his pads onto the on-side – told him the Aussie No.3 was "a bit on edge".
"In the first couple of years of his career, that didn't happen – he would miss that one down the leg side, or if he flicked at it, people would drop it.
"The weird thing with that shot was that there was a leg slip in place, so the fact that he's looking to play that shot suggests he's a bit on edge.
"You look at Steve Smith today (Thursday), he was also a bit edgy all day and couldn't find his form.
"So there's no doubt sides are bowling better to them, and Marnus will just have to find a way of getting his form back, which I'm sure he can do.
"He's not going through anything that any Test cricketer who plays for five to 10 years doesn't go through.
"You don't have great years every year … he's just got to now work out how he can turn that around to go back to where he was."
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