Ricky Ponting's blunt verdict on Marnus Labuschagne's struggles: Time to look at someone else

Legendary Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels that it’s time to drop Marnus Labuschagne and look at someone else to fill in his shoes in the Test team. Labuschagne had another failure on Day 1 of the second Test against Bangladesh in Mackay as he got bowled down the leg side by Shoriful Islam for 4 (9).

It continued a prolonged lean patch for the Australia batter who last scored a century in July 2023 during the Ashes in Manchester. Sharing his thoughts on Labuschagne’s poor form, Ponting lauded the selectors for giving him chances, but he felt that there was enough evidence to suggest that he may not find his form in the lead-up to the series.

"I admire what they [the selectors] are trying to do with Marnus. I admire that they tried to get him and get him back to his best, but it's been way too long now. I'm on record as saying I would have made that change at the start of this series because I think there was enough evidence for me to suggest that he was a long way from rediscovering his best,” Ricky Ponting said on Channel 7.

Ponting acknowledged that the right-handed batter was unlucky to be dismissed on Day 1 but found weakness in his backfoot play.

"He was unlucky today. There's no doubt about that. But that tends to happen to you as well when you're struggling, and you're trying to find some form and some rhythm. The worry that I had with him, I think there's some technical deficiency there, but he's making the margin for error for the bowlers too great. With the length, he can't score off the back foot. If you can't score off the back foot in Test cricket, then batting becomes a hard game. So I well and truly think it's time to have a look at somebody else,” he added.

The former Australia skipper stated that the change is inevitable now since the lean patch has stretched out for too long.

Labuschagne's poor run since Ashes 2023

"Don't get me wrong I'm not one for making panic change just because we lost last week. It wasn't about that. Guys that I played with they would tell you that I'd do everything I could to keep them in these players in my side. I didn't want to make change, but when something stretches out as long as it has now and it's well over two (three) years since he's made a Test match hundred,” Ponting concluded.

Ever since his last Test century, Marnus Labuschagne has scored 963 runs from 43 innings at an average of 24.69 with nine fifties to his name. Marnus Labuschagne wasn't picked in the playing XI on the West Indies tour in 2025, and was then recalled for the start of the Ashes 2025-26 after dominating domestic cricket. However, he’s yet to find his mojo back at the international level.