{"id":363601,"date":"2024-01-29T01:23:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T02:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363601"},"modified":"2024-01-29T03:02:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T03:02:57","slug":"coach-admits-marnus-brought-undone-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363601","title":{"rendered":"Coach admits Marnus brought 'undone' this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralia's coach Andrew McDonald<\/a> has put his support behind Marnus Labuschagne<\/a>, despite the 29-year-old averaging 6.33 across the two Test matches against the West Indies.<\/p>\n

After bursting onto the scene\ufeff in 2019, Labuschagne is experiencing the first significant drop in form of his Test career, averaging 35.08 across 2023 and '24.<\/p>\n

The No.3 batter's struggles around the fourth stump line were exposed<\/a> during the West Indies series\ufeff, being caught in the slips on both occasions in the second Test<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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While backing Labuschagne to get himself out of this form slump, McDonald admitted tactics from opposition sides have brought him "undone" over the past two years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I think the positive within that [is that] the law of averages suggests that he's due for a couple of bumper Test matches and series," he said after Australia was beaten by the Windies on Sunday.<\/p>\n

"So we've got trust and faith in the way that he goes about his preparation, the way he goes about his innings.<\/p>\n

"He's been undone by certain plans at times, so there's no doubt that we will get into that. He does get busy and get back to work.<\/p>\n

"We've got full confidence in his ability to rebound. He's a quality player. There's no doubt that you're going to go through some lulls of form, if you want to call it that."<\/p>\n

Speaking during the second Test, former Australian cricketer Kerry O'Keeffe \ufeffexplained there's been a significant shift in the way Labuschagne has been batting.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"He's squaring up more and more, he's playing at balls he would've left in his (best form)," he said on Fox Cricket.<\/p>\n

"The beauty of Marnus was his low false-shot percentage and the fact that he shouldered arms to things and now we're seeing he's playing more with his hands from a square position, he's playing high risk shots like the hook shot, they're getting him out. I think he'll reassess."<\/p>\n

Having made his debut in 2018, Labuschagne averaged over 60 in 2019, '20 and '21, notably dominating sides like Pakistan and New Zealand while he also scored three centuries against the West Indies in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Foakes<\/p>\n

England legend Michael Vaughan noted there's been significantly less luck on his side since those years. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"They\ufeff're also catching him, you go back to 2018 I think there was a 50 per cent ratio they were dropping him," he said.<\/p>\n

"I just think that seven to eight metre area where the seamers have been bowling consistently (has impacted him).<\/p>\n

"They go to New Zealand in a few weeks' time, the Kiwis will hammer that length, that right shoulder's coming in but he'll do something about it because he's a great player.<\/p>\n

"But just at the moment he's struggling to deal with that length of seven to nine metres with a little bit of bounce."<\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

Along with \ufeffLabuschagne's struggles, the reshuffle in the batting order to have Steve Smith opening and Cameron Green at No.4 came under the microscope with both men failing to make a big score.<\/p>\n

Smith almost rescued Australia in the second innings of the second Test<\/a>, scoring 91 not out, having tallied 12, 11 not out and 6 before that.<\/p>\n

Green also scored 14 and 8 in the first two innings before hitting 42 in the run chase.<\/p>\n

McDonald said he was comfortable with the batting line-up and identified the "irony" of their second Test performances.<\/p>\n

"I suppose if you look at the irony of it all, the question marks were on Steve Smith and Cameron Green and they were our two best-performed batters (on Sunday)," he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralia's coach Andrew McDonald has put his support behind Marnus Labuschagne, despite the 29-year-old averaging 6.33 across the two Test matches against the West Indies. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363601"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363607,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363601\/revisions\/363607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/363603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}