Smith offered him some words of advice during the winter<\/a>, which has seemingly paid dividends.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s always tough when you get dropped. We\u2019ve all been there at some point in our careers,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he knew he probably wasn\u2019t batting as well as he had been four years ago, when he was scoring a mountain of runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy advice to him was to stop thinking so technically. Just go and play the game, watch the ball and react,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s been doing that really beautifully and he\u2019s played so nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Labuschagne\u2019s Ashes selection appears to be a near-certainty, there remains conjecture over where he should bat in the order \u2013 his preferred position is at No. 3, where he has scored each of his 11 Test hundreds, but the Australians could squeeze two all-rounders into the starting XI if he opens the batting.<\/p>\n
Labuschagne batted at the top of the order during June\u2019s World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord\u2019s, his most recent Test appearance, posting scores of 17 and 22 against the Proteas. However, Smith is adamant the 31-year-old is capable of batting anywhere in the top three.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can open, as we saw in the Test Championship Final, he can bat three, he\u2019s versatile,\u201d Smith said of Labuschagne.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Opening) is not too different to batting three, to be honest. It\u2019s essentially the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he needs to change anything if that\u2019s the case. Just play the game, play how he has been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia’s captain Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA \/ AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n
Smith has not played a professional match since The Hundred competition in the United Kingdom, which concluded in August. Since returning home from New York last week, he has completed three net sessions and will face bowlers for the first time on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
However, the 36-year-old warned he was at peak fitness ahead of a blockbuster home summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been training quite hard,\u201d Smith explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing a lot of lifting, trying to get a bit stronger. I did all my strength tests yesterday and they\u2019re as good as they\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m ready for a big summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith expects to play two Sheffield Shield matches before the first Test against England \u2013 next week\u2019s clash against Queensland in Brisbane and November\u2019s contest against Victoria at the SCG.<\/p>\n
The New South Welshman delayed the start of his summer due to fears of mental fatigue, acknowledging that he doesn\u2019t want to drain himself ahead of a five-Test campaign. Cricket Australia supported the move, hopeful it could extend his Test career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I certainly get drained mentally quicker than I probably used to,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that when I play a lot at the start, by the end of the summer, I\u2019m pretty cooked mentally and probably can\u2019t produce the same performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s obviously a balance, but I don\u2019t think it takes me much now to get up to game speed. I want to try and stay as mentally fresh as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Test skipper Pat Cummins under an injury cloud, there\u2019s a strong chance deputy Smith will lead Australia for the Perth match, having previously captained his country on 112 occasions across formats.<\/p>\n
The right-hander averages 68.98 in Tests as captain, while that figure slips to 49.90 when he\u2019s not leading the side \u2013 something he\u2019s aware of.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s interesting how the brain works, I think my record when I\u2019m captain is probably better than it is when I\u2019m not,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I kind of go to another level and try to set a standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI\u2019ve stood in (for Cummins) a couple of times over the last few years, it\u2019s nothing out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how the team operates \u2026 it\u2019ll just be a seamless transition if that comes around.\u201d<\/p>\n
And although he\u2019s spent the last month on the other side of the planet, Smith couldn\u2019t avoid the Ashes build-up and the simmering \u201cwar of words\u201d between Australia and England.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen it all,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like to buy into too much. I just like to go about my business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t like to get into too much of a war of words, I suppose. Just let our skills take over, play the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve done that really well over the last few years. Business as usual, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first Ashes Test between Australia and England gets underway at Perth Stadium on November 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, before the start of the Australian summer, Marnus Labuschagne made a vow to his close mate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-230526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760997672_565_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n