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Australia were handed a comprehensive five-wicket defeat by South Africa in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) at Lord's on Saturday. Though the Baggy Greens did perform seemingly well with the ball, it was the batters who ended up disappointing big time in the final.
Australia's top-order completely crumbled in front of South Africa's pace trio of Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi. Steve Smith did play a valiant knock of 66 runs in the first innings, but other than that, none of their top-order batters including Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green were able to perform. However, head coach Andrew McDonald believes that the side's problems do not lie in just their batting order.
"I know you guys want to talk about the batting line-up and where Marnus fits and all of that. But we're looking into all three facets of the game where we need to keep improving to stay ahead of the opposition. I think that the bowling had some areas where we let the tempo of the game shift on day three," McDonald said as quoted by The Age.
Following the defeat to the Proteas, McDonald remarked that his side isn't perfect by any means and believes that they can perform far better than what they did in the WTC final.
"We're not a perfect team, we haven't been across the journey. We've found ways to win and unfortunately this time we couldn't conjure that up. We also lost 5 for [20] in the first innings as well. You put those seven wickets that we lost in the second innings and that's 12 for not many runs. I think we are better than that," he added.
McDonald has shown trust in Labuschagne despite his poor run of form
McDonald also backed the out-of-form Labuschagne, who hasn't scored a century in the longest format since July, 2023. The Australia head coach stated that the batter is still a big part of the future of the team and expressed confidence in the 30-year-old regaining his form.
“He’s a big part of the future of the team. Anyone that averages 46 in Test cricket at that age is important. We’ve got older players there who are closer to the end than the start, we’ve got some younger players coming in, and you definitely want guys that have got 60-odd Test matches," McDonald stated.
“At that age, he’s really important. If he can get his game in order for the next five years, he can underpin that batting order. At the moment, he’d be disappointed with the returns. He’s missed out on big scores. He threatened at the MCG, got a pair of 70s, and if they’d been a pair of hundreds then the conversation shifts as well. We’re confident he can return to his best, hence why we keep picking him. It’s at what point do we stop picking him," he added.
Meanwhile, South Africa finally ended their 27-year wait for an ICC trophy by winning the WTC mace at Lord's. This is only their second-ever ICC trophy and it came after several heartbreaking defeats in the latter stages of major tournaments. Their first major international title came back in 1998 when they defeated West Indies in the final of the ICC Knockout Trophy.
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