Australia head coach Andrew McDonald did not mince words as he has asked about Marnus Labuschagne’s lean patch in the ongoing Ashes 2025-26. Australia’s top-order batter has struggled in the last two Tests. He registered two single-digit scores in the two-day Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Ahead of the fifth and final Test of the series, McDonald said that the batter gets himself in bad positions and is going into a shell.
"I think with Marn, he won't mind me saying this, it's probably when he loses his intent to score he gets himself in bad positions," McDonald said. "I think there's periods of time where he goes back into his shell and really trusts his defence. And I think within that creates a little bit of error in his game, and he's working on it.
"We saw early in the summer how he played in those first couple of Test matches, great intent, good movement, positive. It's a difficult game, and batting on some of these surfaces is tricky, but it's really about that mindset of going out there and scoring runs.”
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McDonald went on to say that at times Labuschagne has lacked the intent to score runs, getting too defensive. He wants to see Labuschagne get busier and show that he is a quality player in the next Test.
"We've been consistent in that view from our end. Marn will probably go into the technique a little bit more than we do. But we think it's a mindset piece and his intent to score, and if he does that he's at his best and we've had those conversations, even at one-day international level in terms of the way he plays, and we've had to drop him a few times on the base basis of lack of intent.
"I'd like to see him get busier in his innings. And he's a good player. He still averages 40-plus in Test cricket. He's had a lean period but he's a quality player."
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Labuschagne’s numbers in Ashes 2025-26
From eight innings in the Ashes 2025-26, he has managed to score 174 runs at an average of 24.86. He scored a half-century each in first two games of the series.