Aussie selectors will be continuing comedy of errors if they convert Marnus into an opener

The Australian cricket selectors clearly have not heard of the old adage of you don’t weaken one position to strengthen another if they are going to throw Marnus Labuschagne up to opener. 

In this case they are moving a player who has been weak in that role over the past couple of years at first drop to partner him with Usman Khawaja as an opener in the World Test Championship final. 

It would be a bold/dubious move for any Test but to throw him into a role in which he has zero Test experience for the match which decides who claims the trophy at the end of an arduous two-year cycle is either foolhardy or genius, but either way it’s a massive gamble.

Labuschagne has not only never opened in Test cricket in his previous 102 innings from 57 matches, but he has had very limited experience at first-class level.

He broke into the Queensland side at the top of the order way back in 2014, but after middling results he lost his spot in the team and did not establish himself at Sheffield Shield level until 2016-17 when he thrived in the middle order role in tallying 795 runs at 40 to help Queensland win their first Sheffield Shield title in six years

When he was a surprise selection in the Test team seven years ago, he was initially a bits and pieces option at six who could bat a little, bowl some handy leg-spinners and be an energetic presence in the field. 

He then shocked the cricketing world by making the most of his opportunity of being the first ever concussion substitute in Test cricket history after Steve Smith copped a Joffra Archer thunderbolt in 2019.

The q uirky Queenslander not only cemented his spot in the Australian side but became the top-ranked batter in the world in a purple patch yielded 10 centuries over the course of 30 Tests in four pandemic-affected calendar years.

With him firing and Steve Smith coming in at one slot later, the Aussies had a rock solid batting line up as strong as Uluru but over the past two-plus years Labuschagne has been a shadow of his former self scoring just 1325 runs at 31.55.

He has not struck a century since his match-saving knock at Manchester at the fourth Test in Manchester in 2023.

Marnus Labuschagne. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The selectors toyed with the idea of dropping him for the two-Test series in Sri Lanka but stuck with him and the South African born Queenslander again struggled to find the middle of the bat with scores of just 20, 4 and 26 not out. 

If they go ahead with this plan of elevating Labuschagne, the perennially conservative national selection panel of George Bailey, Tony Dodemaide and coach Andrew McDonald have effectively put Sam Konstas’ Test career on ice following his helter-skelter two-match burst at the end of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy home series win over India.

They used Travis Head as a stopgap opener in Sri Lanka and now they are reportedly banking on Labuschagne to solve their problem at the top of the order alongside Khawaja who is in the final stretch of his career as the 38-year-old aims to retire in next January’s SCG Ashes Test with cricket’s precious little urn in his keeping one last time.

All-rounder Cameron Green, who had been touted as a potential opener, looks like he will slot back into the middle order for the World Test Championship decider against the Proteas at Lords and this likely means Smith will be elevated to first drop.

All this means the Aussies are now weakening another of their strength – 

Green is unlikely to be as effective at four as Smith – the Western Australian belted an unbeaten 174 there against New Zealand in one of just six bats in the crucial spot and even if he can’t bowl in the WTC final, a spot needs to be found for him in the batting line-up.

Sam Konstas takes a swing at the SCG. (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)

But on the flip side, even though he prefers coming in at two wickets down, Smith averages 67.07 at first drop with a remarkable eight tons from just 29 innings.

His efforts at four have yielded 23 centuries in 120 trips to the crease at a still superb but lower clip of 61.61.

Head returning to five means Beau Webster is probably the frontrunner for the final spot in the batting order due to his ability to send down more than handy medium-pacers which could prove very useful on English soil with Green unable to roll the arm over after back surgery.

Josh Inglis is also in the mix after his century on debut in Galle even though he followed that up with a duck.

But all eyes will be on Labuschagne if the Aussies follow through with this left-field option.

If this opening gambit does not work, the selectors need to finally bite the bullet and drop him from the team altogether and give Konstas a chance to show he can be relied upon at Test level in the three-match series in the Caribbean against the West Indies later in June which will give him more experience under his belt before the all-important Ashes series back home at the end of the year.

From the moment David Warner fell out of form to the short-lived Smith experiment to Nathan McSweeney, the brief flirtation with Konstas and the decision to use Head in Sri Lanka when he was never going to be a long-term option, it has been a comedy of errors for the selectors in their attempts to solve the opening dilemma.