Only way Marnus Labuschagne can save his career after opening failure

History says Australia will probably get away with the Marnus Labuschagne opening experiment thanks to the greatness of their fast bowling attack, but it won’t stop questions about his future.

Marnus Labuschagne has a free pass to throw caution to the wind on Thursday night when he bats to save his place in the Test team.

It’s difficult to see how anything other than a big, commanding score from Labuschagne in the second innings can extend his career as a Test opener beyond one match with Sam Konstas poised to return to the fold in the West Indies later this month.

On Boxing Day last summer, selectors were rewarded for grabbing the game by the horns when they debuted Sam Konstas at the MCG, but at Lord’s Australia paid a price for going back into their shells.

Marnus Labuschagne is battling to save his place in the Test team. Picture: AP

History says Australia will probably get away with it thanks to the all-time greatness of their fast bowling attack, but a comprehensive victory over South Africa will not change the fact the jury is out on the decision to play Labuschagne when the axe is clearly hovering.

Labuschagne started promisingly on day one in what could be his one and only match as a Test opener.

“I thought he started pretty well today. He looked really sharp in his movements. He left really nicely. He was solid in defence and played some really good shots,” Steve Smith said.

But in the end Labuschagne – like several others in the Australian top order – failed to live out Pat Cummins’ pre-match instruction to “put pressure back” on South Africa’s bowlers.

Marnus Labuschagne started promisingly for Australia. Picture: Getty Images

It’s pointless speculating over whether 19-year-old Konstas would or wouldn’t have made an impact on the scoreboard if he’d been picked for the World Test Championship Final – but certainly his selection would have sent a clear message to South Africa about Australia’s intentions.

By instead going the conservative route of favouring the experience of 30-year-old Labuschagne, Australia gave South Africa an opportunity to be the ones setting the agenda at Lord’s and Kagiso Rabada snatched it with both hands.

The DNA of Australian cricket is to attack victory, and it was that bravery and conviction which conquered the mastery of Jasprit Bumrah and India in the summer’s Border-Gavaskar epic.

No one is expecting Labuschagne to suddenly pull out a ramp shot to Rabada, but he must look for some sort of circuit breaker on Thursday night or Konstas will be taking his place in Barbados.

Winners are grinners and it would take a brave punter to back against Australia in the WTC Final now thanks to the wizardry of Starc and company.

But Australia’s selection of Labuschagne over Konstas may still be looked back upon as a misread at Lord’s.

Marnus Labuschagne failed to live out Pat Cummins’ pre-match instruction to “put pressure back” on South Africa’s bowlers. Picture: Getty Images

Australia proudly swears by a mantra of always picking what they think is the best XI for any given Test match.

However, whether they applied all their usual criteria for the unique setting that is the WTC Final is debatable given Australia has conceded Labuschagne was in part rewarded with selection for being a mainstay of the side for the two-year cycle of the tournament.

If this was the first Test in the West Indies and not the WTC Final at Lord’s, than Sam Konstas almost certainly would have been chosen over Labuschagne.

So why not now?

As former Test quick Damien Fleming told News Corp in an interview before the Test, it’s not as if selectors could have held any concerns over Konstas’ ability to handle world class bowlers on the biggest stage.

“In his four innings so far he’s had (Jasprit) Bumrah bowling, so it’s not as if he hasn’t faced the best at Test level already,” Fleming said.

“What I like about Konstas is his scoring rate, we saw early in the Indian series when Nathan McSweeney was opening with Usman and Marnus at No.3, at times they battled really hard, but if they lost one or two the scoreboard was nowhere.

“I want Konstas to open in the Ashes, so to get a Test final, which is pretty extreme pressure against (Kagiso) Rabada, (Lungi) Ngidi, (Marco) Jansen and co (is beneficial).”

Rather than watch Konstas benefit from being the proactive option at the top of the order, Labuschagne has one last chance to steal his thunder and repay the faith of selectors.

Originally published as Only way Marnus Labuschagne can save his career after opening failure