Australia will have plenty of eyes on their team sheet ahead of the first Test match against New Zealand on December 9. Yet again, following another missed opportunity against South Africa's off-spinner Simon Harmer on Day 2 of the Cape Town Test, Marnus Labuschagne has been put to the forefront.

The man who was once seen as Australia's rock at the top of the order, with his intense and focused approach similar to Steve Smith, is going through the worst run of his career.

With Australia about to play some high-stakes cricket in the home summer against the dangerous Kiwis, there is a real test ahead for the selector.

Should they stick with the legacy and drop him, or do they need the runs at number 3?

3 Reasons Why Australia Should Drop Marnus Labuschagne From The Test Team:

1. Longest Century Drought & Technical Issues

Marnus Labuschagne has fallen into quite a slump. He has now gone over 40 innings without scoring a century in Tests, since mid-2023.

metric	Peak Era (2019–2022)	Recent Form (Last 3 Years)
Test Average	~60.00+	Sub-35.00
Century Frequency	Conversion every ~6–7 innings	0 Centuries in 40+ innings
Vulnerabilities	Minimal / High technical trust	Susceptible to dynamic seam & quality off-spin

His recent dismissal against Simon Harmer in Cape Town highlighted the issue of becoming increasingly susceptible to spin bowling.

His attempts to manipulate his position, back-lift and triggering are causing his natural intuition to be lost. For a team looking to remain among the best in world cricket, having an anchor that isn't performing is something they can no longer afford.

2. Paralyzing the innings

An elite anchor has the ability to soak up pressure in the early stages of an innings and then accelerate and put the opposition on the back foot.

However, recently Marnus Labuschagne has struggled, not making the most of his innings.

He regularly fails to get past the difficult opening overs and even after getting past 20-30, he regularly gives his wicket away. This is due to his extremely conservative playing style, causing our team to stagnate with regard to scoring runs. This pressure then falls onto our middle order anchors who are constantly struggling to get us back in.

3. Allow our in-form domestic players

If we keep playing an out-of-form senior player, we will be preventing some of our well-deserved in-form players from excelling in Sheffield Shield.

We need to look at our long-term future and reward our domestic players for their consistency.

Marnus Labuschagne shouldn't be seen as being dropped but as a reset:

By playing him in first-class cricket, he'll be able to remove any technical issues he has, get his mind in the right place and score the large amount of runs needed to force his way back into the team.

Plan for transition

By bringing in an in-form domestic batter, we have an instant boost in our opening and set us up for the New Zealand series. It also allows us to create some depth for future overseas tours.

Conclusion

When selecting our test team, we need to be realistic. As we have a 4-test series against New Zealand coming up on the 9th of December, our opening will need to be stable, dominant and score some big centuries. Although it may be a difficult decision for George Bailey and the selectors, taking a step back from Marnus Labuschagne may be the kick the team and player need.