Table of Contents
Only a few days after providing support, former Australia National Cricket Team opener David Warner asked the Australian cricket team management not to consider Marnus Labuschagne for their upcoming series against South Africa. The former cricketer suggested to the team management that even if the batter scores a century against Bangladesh in Mackay, he will still not deserve to take the flight to South Africa.
Australia is currently engaged with the Bangladesh cricket team for a two-match home Test series. The series started with a shocking result. Bangladesh defeated the home team by 9 wickets in Darwin. Because of batting failures in both of the the innings, the mighty Australia had to suffer a fall against the Tiger Brigade.
Alarming situation for Australia ahead of the South Africa series
The defeat against Bangladesh could be considered an alarming sign for the Aussies. They are scheduled to face South Africa for a multi-format series including a 3-match Test contest. Aussies will not wish to travel to South Africa with a broken batting unit. As a warning, David Warner suggested the cricket team rethink the future of Marnus Labuschagne, who was considered one of the bright prospects in Tests for the Australia cricket team.
Against Bangladesh, at the beginning of both of the innings of the Darwin Test, Labuschagne faced the first few balls well, looked promising, but suddenly disintegrated. In the first innings of the match, he scored 1 run from 20 balls, and in the second, the batter claimed 31 off 59 balls. Another Test match without a century for Marnus Labuschagne.
Marnus Labuschagne scored his last Test century in 2023
Soon after the dismissal of the batter in the second innings, Cricbuzz shared a few stats from their official social media account. According to those stats, the Australian batter last scored a Test hundred in 2023. Since then, he went through 42 innings without claiming his next hundred, averaging 25.23.
These stats are frustrating for the former Australian opener David Warner. Warner, who said on Day 3 of the Australia vs Bangladesh match, "Today we saw the Marnus of old," asked the team management to drop the batter from Australia's tour of South Africa, even if he secures a hundred against Bangladesh in the upcoming Test match.
David Warner asks the team management to drop Marnus Labuschagne from the squad
Sharing the Cricbuzz social media post on his Instagram story, Warner wrote, "This stat is unheard of. 100 against Bangladesh is not a guarantee of going to South Africa. Last I recall was a great player for Aus, ave. 21 after 31 innings at number 4. I feel for Jake."
David Warner believes Marnus Labuschagne shouldn't be guaranteed a spot in the XI for the South Africa tour even if he scores a century against Bangladesh in Mackay.#AUSvBAN pic.twitter.com/zD5TGp69vg
— CricBlog ✍ (@cric_blog) August 20, 2026
The Australia vs Bangladesh second Test match will start on August 22 at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay. Ahead of the match, which is the last of the Test series, Bangladesh is leading the contest by 1-0. To save prestige at home, Australia, at any cost, will have to win the match so that it can end in a draw.
