Former captain Ricky Ponting, who scored more than 13,000 test runs, said it was time for tough decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the last one to want to make change,\u201d he told Channel Seven when the test was in its death throes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a captain or as a player, I wanted to keep a group together, so it has to get to a bad point before I start saying you\u2019ve got to leave somebody out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s been enough evidence for me coming here [Darwin] to suggest they weren\u2019t going to lose anything, or much at all, by starting that regeneration, bringing in another opener, bringing in someone at [number] three … I think that has to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the exception of Steve Smith (71 and 44) and second-innings century-maker Cameron Green, the Australian batting was poor, with too many soft dismissals.<\/p>\n
Weatherald and No 3 Labuschagne are most at risk, both averaging under 27 since the start of the Ashes against England in late 2025 and rapidly running out of lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 1-2-3, as Ricky and I will tell you, are absolutely fundamental to the set-up of a batting team,\u201d former opener Matthew Hayden told the same broadcaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they are constantly putting that middle order under pressure, Steve Smith arriving way earlier than he ever needs to be, then you\u2019ve got to start to answer those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bite the bullet<\/p>\n
Josh Inglis was the spare batter for Darwin, but skipper Pat Cummins said selectors could look for alternatives outside the 13-man squad, acknowledging the batting failures were \u201ca little bit of a trend\u201d.<\/p>\n
A rejuvenated Matt Renshaw coming in for Weatherald is the most obvious change for the second test, starting in Mackay on Saturday.<\/p>\n
But there is also growing support for a younger generation to be given a chance, with Sam Konstas, Campbell Kellaway, Ollie Peake and Cooper Connolly knocking at the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to bite the bullet at some stage,\u201d Australian great Mark Waugh said, while former opener David Warner, whose place in the team has proved hard to fill since he quit in 2024, added: \u201cI think we\u2019ve got to start blooding some youngsters.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Australia facing a tough three-test challenge in South Africa as their next assignment in October, throwing in at least one youngster at Mackay to gain experience would make sense.<\/p>\n
Australian media suggested Kurtis Patterson or Nathan McSweeney were the two frontrunners to take Labuschagne\u2019s spot, although neither has been in outstanding form.<\/p>\n
Darwin was the first of up to 21 tests Australia will play over the next 12 months, and the tried-and-tested bowling unit of Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon is seemingly still in favour, despite their advanced years.<\/p>\n
Returning from injury, Hazlewood shut down debate over whether he remains Australia\u2019s first-choice attack bowler with a six-wicket haul in Bangladesh\u2019s first innings.<\/p>\n
Veteran off-spinner Lyon, also on the comeback from injury, appears most vulnerable, with the 38-year-old outbowled by Bangladesh counterpart Mehidy Hasan Miraz.<\/p>\n
Understudy Todd Murphy, 25, is considered first in the pecking order to take over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former captain Ricky Ponting, who scored more than 13,000 test runs, said it was time for tough decisions.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[116060,74,10791,85,24812,13612,11497,176919,115,62393,48803,3049,7796,83883,212830,84970,132120,15220,2225,281918,111,139,281916,69,20248,1523,65676,213,7187,765,281917,102],"class_list":["post-572004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-accelerated","tag-after","tag-ageing","tag-australia","tag-australias","tag-axe","tag-bangladesh","tag-batters","tag-calls","tag-darwin","tag-disaster","tag-firing","tag-hangs","tag-humiliating","tag-inconsistent","tag-jake","tag-labuschagne","tag-line","tag-loss","tag-marnus","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-ninewicket","tag-nz","tag-opener","tag-over","tag-regeneration","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-test","tag-weatherald","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}