{"id":858373,"date":"2026-08-17T10:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858373\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:58:16","slug":"cricket-news-2026-marnus-labuschagne-form-andrew-mcdonald-press-conference-australia-vs-bangladesh-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858373\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket news 2026: Marnus Labuschagne form, Andrew McDonald press conference; Australia vs Bangladesh Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian coach Andrew McDonald<\/a> has resisted calls for regeneration of the side, but admits Marnus Labuschagne<\/a> needs big runs after another lean Test<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McDonald faced media after the shocking nine-wicket loss to Bangladesh, as the focus once again turns to the Aussie squad\u2019s ageing status ahead of looming Test series against South Africa, New Zealand, India and England. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Marnus Labuschagne.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jake Weatherald<\/a> and Labuschagne are two players under heavy scrutiny after failing to make a big score in both innings. <\/p>\n

Ricky Ponting<\/a> has been one former player calling for change, with Victorian young guns Ollie Peake and Campbell Kellaway part of his case.<\/p>\n

A cautious McDonald believes there\u2019s still \u201ca fair bit of cricket left\u201d in this group. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be a conversation, the age profile of the team, where we\u2019re at, how we\u2019re travelling,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA loss doesn\u2019t help that, there\u2019s no doubt about that. These players have got a fair bit of cricket left in them … it\u2019s really about how we navigate through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be calls for change on the back of a loss, there\u2019s always going to be emotion from the outside and even internally. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur guys are in the change room and they\u2019re feeling it, you feel a Test loss, it means a lot to them. It\u2019s how you move forward. Our next decision is going to be the most important. What we do, how we get them prepped. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe easy option is to call for change, a lot of people call for change even when we\u2019re winning, they\u2019re entitled to do that as well on the back of a performance like that. That\u2019s part of our lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Labuschagne, the 32-year-old scored 1 and 31 in the first Test with his gap between centuries now at three years. <\/p>\n

McDonald admitted the bottom line is \u201cwe want runs\u201d but managed to stay positive about his No.3. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was 31 in the second innings, and until the point he got out, you\u2019d look out there and say, \u2018Geez he\u2019s looked good, he\u2019s moving well, clipping off his pads, getting back through the ball down the ground\u2019,\u201d the coach said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for me to try and defend that but ultimately, it\u2019s 31. It\u2019s not a big score. He\u2019s lacked runs, he feels that, we feel that. We\u2019re working hard as a coaching group, and it\u2019s one thing to talk about the player, but we\u2019ve got to get the best out of Marn as well and we\u2019re working through that. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had a bit of a lull, he knows that. He\u2019s gone to work, I think we saw some change in the way that he played, so that\u2019s good. Some of that work he had done, it feels like it stuck under pressure … but it is 31. He\u2019s disappointed at that, it\u2019s a missed opportunity, and he needs some big runs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Andrew McDonald. \u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

McDonald also flagged the possibility that the squad for Mackay could be extended from the 13 available in Darwin. <\/p>\n

That could bring Matt Renshaw into the equation, with Weatherald struggling at the top of the batting order. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go back to the original squad that was picked, it was quite skinny in terms of 13,\u201d McDonald said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe usually travel with a few more than that, so I think Bails [chief selector George Bailey] left it very open to we could add depending on what we saw going through. It\u2019s a very light squad we had, we\u2019ll make those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian coach Andrew McDonald has resisted calls for regeneration of the side, but admits Marnus Labuschagne needs big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-858373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858373","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=858373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}