Years ago, Brad Hodge’s 50-over career for Australia was curtailed significantly by the belief that he was essentially an understudy – to be called up when Ricky Ponting needed a rest or someone else was injured.
The salient conclusion to be drawn from the opening game of the elongated home season on Sunday was that the selectors have decided Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, likewise, are each playing a role for which the team only needs one player.
Marnus Labuschagne was unable to convert a series of starts in Sri Lanka.Credit:Getty Images
This is a harsh call on Labuschagne, who has performed outstandingly for Australia in Tests since the 2019 Ashes, but it also reflects the reality of the 50 and 20-over formats getting closer together in approach over time.
Moreover, wicket-keeper and vice-captain Alex Carey is also a sturdy player, rather than a certified late-innings hitter, further squeezing the number of places for that kind of batting in the format. Josh Inglis is a more explosive 360-degree proposition, but Carey is also Australia’s 50-over vice-captain and second only to Glenn Maxwell in the aggregates.
In parallel, Labuschagne has unfortunately allowed the selectors to have a performance-based case to leave him out. After a superb start to his white-ball career in the early months of 2020 that reaped 305 runs at 50.83 and a strike rate of 94.42, including a century in South Africa, Labuschagne has tailed off.
In 14 innings since, Labuschagne has only passed 50 twice while averaging 26.57 – conspicuously struggling to turn starts into the big, spinal scores that he and Smith are relied upon to produce in exchange for a slower scoring rate.
Where the call becomes harsher still is that over the same period others have struggled similarly when not encountering conditions like Sri Lanka’s for the first time. Since COVID-19 struck Australia in March 2020, both Mitch Marsh and Marcus Stoinis have struggled for impact.
While Stoinis’ 213 runs at 23.66 are somewhat mitigated by a fast-scoring rate of 109.23, Marsh has cobbled 195 runs at 19.5 while striking at a mere 70.39 – comfortably the slowest of any batter chosen during the period. All but two of Marsh’s innings have been at Nos.3 or 5.
Most 50-over runs for Australia since COVID-19
- Glenn Maxwell 545 runs at 60.55, 148.90 strike rate
- Alex Carey 543 runs at 36.20, 85.64 strike rate
- Aaron Finch 508 runs at 33.86, 81.54 strike rate
- David Warner 400 runs at 36.36, 86.58 strike rate
- Marnus Labuschagne 372 runs at 26.57, 79.82 strike rate
- Steve Smith 345 runs at 69.00, 107.81 strike rate
- Travis Head 310 runs at 62.00, 112.72 strike rate
- Ben McDermott 223 runs at 44.60, 80.21 strike rate
- Marcus Stoinis 213 runs at 23.66, 109.23 strike rate
- Mitch Marsh 195 runs at 19.50, 70.39 strike rate
- Cameron Green 153 runs at 38.25, 85.95 strike rate
But Marsh’s saving grace has been as a change bowler, claiming six wickets at 30.50 and conceding 4.69 runs an over. Only Josh Hazlewood and Ashton Agar have been more economical in that time.
Smith, of course, has barely played ODIs lately, commonly resting between Test assignments. Six matches in the past two years included a starburst of runs at home to India in 2020, before injury curtailed him in Sri Lanka.
In the chase against Zimbabwe, Smith’s commission was straightforward: to accumulate and rotate strike while a series of bigger hitters took risks at the other end. For some, Stoinis and Marsh among them, this freedom led to early downfalls.
Steve Smith with Glenn Maxwell having 50-over fun against India at the SCG in 2020.Credit:Getty Images
When Glenn Maxwell came to the middle for the clean-up job, his head-turning 32 from a mere nine balls was the perfect complement to Smith’s relatively stodgy but similarly valuable 48 off 80 balls.
For his part, Labuschagne has been outspoken that he and Smith form a tandem in 50-over games as they do in Tests, hitting the ball to different parts of the ground, hustling between the wickets, steadying an innings through the middle overs or accelerating if scenarios dictate as such.
“I don’t really see us as similar players, I think we attack the game very differently,” Labuschagne told ESPNcricinfo recently. “The challenge is we’ve just got to continue to push that run rate, especially when we are batting first, and we both understand that.”
But the clear takeaway from selection for the first game in Townsville was that unless Labuschagne can regain his spot and churn out bigger scores at a high enough tempo, he is now likely cast as the anchor understudy.
Smith’s role in the year leading up to a 50-over World Cup is crystal clear. Labuschagne’s white-ball future is anything but. At 21 career ODIs, he is uncomfortably close to Hodge’s final tally of 25.
