Steve Smith has likened Marnus Labuschagne’s poor form with the bat to his own previous struggles after again throwing his support behind the under-fire batter. Calls are growing louder for Labuschagne to be axed from the Aussie XI ahead of June’s World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa, following a steady decline in form over the last couple of years.

Labuschagne only averaged 27.08 with the bat the previous summer and that figure has dropped to 25.36 after a largely disappointing series against India and then again in Sri Lanka. Labuschagne did score the winning runs in Australia’s second Test victory in Galle after finishing with 26 not out but it did little to mask his meagre totals of four in the first innings, to go with a 20 in the opening Test.

The Queenslander was the only one of Australia’s specialist batters who failed to cash in against Sri Lanka, and the 30-year-old looks worryingly down on confidence. It’s hardly the ideal situation for the Aussies heading towards the WTC final at Lord’s in June, with SEN Cricket expert Bharat Sundaresan among those to question his future in the Test side.

“For the first time ever, it does look like his place could be under threat,” Sundaresan said on SEN ahead of day four in Sri Lanka. “When he got out yesterday (in the first innings), just the way he reviewed it and his body language as he looked up at the screen and the way he walked away, there was a sense of resignation as if to say ‘what more can I do’. Unfortunately for Marnus, yes his contributions were vital again during the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the two 70s in Melbourne and the 64 in Adelaide.

“But this decline in his average which is in steep decline, it’s coincided with a lot of others vying for that spot, who are not playing Shield cricket, who are within that dressing room who are performing. The squeeze is on. The squeeze is on and Cameron Green is coming back.”

One of those players within the Aussie squad who’s putting pressure on Labuschagne is Josh Inglis, who justified his Test call-up in Sri Lanka with a maiden international red-ball century in the first match against. And it will be curious to see what approach the Aussie selectors take with Green when the gun all-rounder returns from a long-term back injury.

Green is highly regarded within the Australian setup and has been tipped to enjoy a long future in Test cricket but whether he comes straight back into the Aussie XI remains to be seen. While Inglis has proven that he belongs on the big stage and will surely come into calculations for the WTC final, as Labuschagne battles to hold onto his spot.

Steve Smith backs Marnus Labuschagne’s return to form

But Smith continues to insist that a big score is just around the corner for Labuschagne, as he did before the second Test got underway. And the stand-in skipper – who’s in a purple patch after hitting two tons against Sri Lanka to make it four centuries in five Tests – says he sees a lot of similarities between Labuschagne and himself.

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Smith hadn’t hit a Test ton for 18 months before his drought-breaking innings against India at the Gabba, and now he can’t stop scoring centuries. And the stand-in skipper says he’s seen enough evidence from Labuschagne’s batting to convince him that a big score is around the corner and the calls to axe him are premature.

“I think Marn is similar to me in a way, I think he’s actually batting quite nicely,” Smith said. “I have said this a lot of times about myself, there’s a difference between being out of form and out of runs. We’ve seen Marnus do it, we know he can do it, I don’t think he’s out of form, personally.

“I have watched him train, I have watched him play, a lot of the things he’s done are there. A little bit of luck here and there and things can turn around pretty quickly, we know what he’s capable of. He knows he’d love to score more runs, we’d love him to score more runs, in my opinion it’s just around the corner.”

with agencies