Cricket World Cup: Australian team selection battle for semi-final, Marnus Labuschagne v Marcus Stoinis

The selection showdown is on for the last spot in Australia’s semi-final clash against South Africa. And it could be that the good fortune has run out for Australia’s luckiest cricketer.

Periodically over his excellent international career to date, attention has turned to Marnus Labuschagne being an unusually lucky cricketer.

A Cricviz analysis in early 2022 found that to that point of his career, opposition sides shelled catches off Labuschagne’s bat much more regularly than the average player.

That he has also found his way into the Australian side as a concussion substitute in both Test and one-day cricket adds to a picture of a very talented player who has also found himself in the right place at the right time.

But it is one thing to have luck, and another to make the most of it.

Since Australia named its extended 18-man squad for this World Cup back in early August, the Aussies have played 17 one-day internationals.

Marnus Labuschagne has played in every World Cup game through the group stages – but could he be on the outer for the semi-final? Picture: AFP

Two players have featured in all of them.

David Warner, arguably the nation’s greatest ever one-day batter is one.

The other is Labuschagne, who wasn’t even in that original squad, let alone when it was trimmed to 15 in early September.

However through a long and occasionally bizarre list of reasons, Labuschagne found his way to South Africa for September’s ODI series against the Proteas, was provided an opening when Cameron Green was concussed in the first match of the series at Bloemfontein and has held his spot since.

Steve Smith’s wrist injury led to Labuschagne being called up late for the South Africa tour.

Then there was Green’s concussion, Travis Head’s broken hand, Marcus Stoinis’ calf niggle, Glenn Maxwell’s golf cart accident, Smith’s vertigo and Maxwell being rested for the final league stage match have all conspired to ensure selectors never needed to make a call on whether Labuschagne should be omitted.

Steve Smith has battled with vertigo – opening the door for Labuschagne to keep his spot. Picture: Getty

In between times Labuschagne has made 707 runs at 47.13 with a strike rate of 88.15, not rapid but not diabolically slow either.

Finally though, the time for the tough call looks like has it arrived. With Maxwell and Mitchell Starc freshened up for a date with the Proteas in Kolkata on Thursday, Labuschagne appears to be in a two-man battle with Marcus Stoinis for the final spot in the XI. That is unless some other unusual event transpires in the next four days, and to be fair at this rate it can’t be ruled out.

Labuschagne may have had some luck over the journey but make no mistake he will be stiff if he misses out against the nation of his birth.

He has for the most part played the role asked of him, knuckling down when needed in South Africa and then earlier in this tournament against Sri Lanka.

Labuschagne has had a measured tournament without a standout innings. Picture: Getty

He has been bogged down at times for sure, but both in the warm-up series and against the Netherlands in Delhi he also showed a capacity to up the ante.

On Saturday in Pune, Labuschagne forced his way into the game in the field alone, having a hand in two run outs including one brilliant one-handed diving

If he gets squeezed out, it will be through little fault of his own.

Unfortunately though for Labuschagne, Australia showed on Saturday that it can score bulk runs without him. Of course, the challenge offered by a banged-up Bangladesh does not compare to that of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen and co.

And Stoinis has hardly set the world on fire, albeit playing a role where numbers sometimes don’t tell the full story.

Marcus Stoinis offers a more explosive option with the bat. Picture: Getty

He is averaging just over 20 and striking at 121.05 with the bat since the start of the South Africa ODIs, while averaging 42.75 with the ball at an economy rate of 6.84.

That Mitch Marsh went at 12 an over against Bangladesh should help Stoinis’ cause. Pat Cummins likes having bowling options at his disposal, even if several of them are imperfect. Ideally Maxwell sends down the bulk of the fifth bowler’s portion, but what if he is having an off day like he did earlier in the tournament against Pakistan? Just knowing that Stoinis is up his sleeve to bang in some middle over short stuff provides Cummins with extra confidence.

So too does knowing that he can blast Australia home late in a tight game, as he did in the semi-final of the Twenty20 World Cup against Pakistan two years ago.

However whereas Labuschagne can be relied upon to graft if his side falls in a hole, Stoinis is much less bankable. His decision to reverse sweep Rashid Khan in the run chase against Afghanistan escaped intense scrutiny because of Maxwell’s rescue job, but combined with Josh Inglis’ lack of footwork against pace, it painted a picture of a batting lineup that could do with Labuschagne’s stability.

If they were similar players it would be an easier call. This is a case of an apple and an orange, and the selectors having to choose which fruit they can least do without.

Originally published as Cricket World Cup: Australian team selection battle for semi-final, Marnus Labuschagne v Marcus Stoinis