Marnus Labuschagne will not be considered for the first Test against New Zealand at Perth Stadium from 9 December, or for the rest of that series, chair of selectors George Bailey confirmed on Monday 9 November, making it the 32-year-old’s second omission from the Test team in 17 months, cricket.com.au reported.
Bailey spoke to media on Monday 9 November. “At this stage we won’t be considering Marn for selection for certainly that first Test, but for the New Zealand series,” he said.
The announcement covered Labuschagne alone. The rest of the squad for the series has not been named.
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Why Selectors Made the Call
Bailey made the decision after the tour of South Africa, the country of Labuschagne’s birth, Fox Sports reported. He said part of the reason was to give the batter room, cricket.com.au reported.
“We just felt like this one was an important one, as much for Marn, just to give him the space. He’ll obviously go back and captain Queensland.”
Bailey was also direct about the cricket itself. “I think he’s missed some opportunities, some promising starts in Darwin and even in South Africa as well, to go on and get a big score that we’d like and would have liked for some time, and that just hasn’t happened.”
The review had been flagged during the tour. Head coach Andrew McDonald said in South Africa, where Australia lost the series 2-1, that selectors would reassess, Fox Sports reported.
“We believed in Marnus for this tour, we’ll have to reassess that as we move forward,” McDonald said.
The Numbers Behind It
Since he was dropped for the West Indies series in 2025, Labuschagne has averaged 23.66 in 10 Tests, with two fifties from 19 innings, according to cricket.com.au. He has not made a Test century in 49 innings, a run that dates to the 2023 Ashes.
The South Africa tour did not change that. He made 131 runs at 21.83 across the series, Fox Sports reported, and he did not reach 40 in the first two Tests, according to cricket.com.au.
In Gqeberha, after Australia were asked to follow on and needed to bat a little more than four sessions to save the Test, he holed out into the wind, Fox Sports reported. In the deciding Test at Newlands in Cape Town, he edged Simon Harmer to slip for a fifth-ball duck in the first innings and finished the match with 0 and 4.
He has not made a Test half-century in his last 16 innings, a run dating to the first innings of the Gabba Test in the 2025-26 Ashes, according to Fox Sports.
His peak looked very different. Between November 2019 and December 2022 he made ten hundreds in 36 innings and rose to No. 1 in the ICC Test batting rankings, cricket.com.au reported. His Test average has fallen from 60.82 after 30 Tests to 42.64 after 68.
A Door Left Open
Bailey said a path back remains, even for the 2027 Tests in India and England, cricket.com.au reported.
“It’s still possible, absolutely,” he said, according to Fox Sports.
There is a precedent. After his omission for the West Indies series in 2025, Labuschagne was recalled for the Ashes off the back of a run of centuries for Queensland, Fox Sports reported. In the Caribbean, Cameron Green batted at No. 3.
prw’s coverage of the South Africa tour, from Hazlewood’s six for 49 in Durban to the Newlands Test preview, is in the Cricket archive.
Back to Queensland, and the Shield
Labuschagne returns to captain Queensland in the Sheffield Shield round that begins on Wednesday 11 November, cricket.com.au reported. Selectors will pick the rest of the squad at the end of that round.
Bailey said on Monday 9 November that several players had put themselves in the frame. “There’s a handful of players that are really well placed at the moment as we work through that over the next week or so to finalise how we think that squad in particular will structure up, and the options we’ll have within that,” he said.
Steve Smith missed the Cape Town decider with a neck injury, and his return will likely be the first piece of the puzzle at No. 3, according to cricket.com.au.
The squad for Perth has not been named, and selectors have not said who will take Labuschagne’s place.
Sources: cricket.com.au, “Labuschagne dropped for Tests against New Zealand”, 9 November 2026 (https://www.cricket.com.au/news/4606602/marnus-labuschagne-loses-place-dropped-axes-tests-against-new-zealand-australia-selectors-george-bailey); Fox Sports, “Big Marnus decision finally made as chief Aussie selector confirms plans for summer Tests”, 9 November 2026 (https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/cricket-news-2026-george-bailey-says-that-marnus-labuschagne-will-not-be-considered-for-selection-for-home-tests-against-new-zealand-latest-news-video/news-story/8bbfb04dfb9f86e7af547debbd327c64)
Photo: Ed g2s, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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