Last Updated on 12 seconds ago by Charbel Coorey

Coach Andrew McDonald has called for calm as he and selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide review Australia’s 2-1 series loss in South Africa. The result is a tough one to take for now the number-two ranked Test team as they found themselves in promising positions in Gqeberha and Cape Town but were unable to get the job done.

High on the agenda is Marnus Labuschagne’s place in the XI. The number three scored 131 runs at 21.83 and looked a dejected figure as he faced just eight balls across two innings at Newlands.

Andrew McDonald defends decision to pick Marnus Labuschagne for South Africa tour

The decision to persist with Labuschagne has come for great criticism from fans and former players. Simon Katich was particularly vocal on SEN Radio, saying the selectors have “potentially crucified a bloke’s career” given the number three averages just 24.2 since his last Test century in July 2023, some 49 innings ago.

However, McDonald says playing for Australia doesn’t do damage and Labuschagne remains a very good cricketer.

“What I can say is that any opportunity that you get to play for Australia, I don’t think damages you,” McDonald said. “I think there’s even been critiquing of some of our younger players where they’ve been placed and the harm that that may cause to their careers and things like that.

“He’s had some opportunities that he’s missed on this tour in particular, so that’ll be something in the next week or so that we’ll get our heads around. We’re not in a rush to make decisions. There’s too much emotion right now, but yeah he hasn’t taken his opportunity on this tour,” McDonald continued, as quoted by Sydney Morning Herald.

“We believed in Marn for this tour. We’ll have to reassess that as we move forward … there’s still a very good cricketer there.

“Every time he drops back to state level, he outperforms the others. But there’s some state cricket going on at the moment as well, which is going to give us a great runway for what the New Zealand selections will look like.”

The concern, however, is how timid Labuschagne looked both before and during the Newlands Test. Reports suggested he looked flat at training in the leadup to the Test, and that showed on the field as he batted very tentatively against Simon Harmer and Kagiso Rabada.

Elsewhere, McDonald backed Steve Smith (neck injury) and Nathan Lyon (form concerns) to start in the Test series against New Zealand which begins on December 9 in Perth.