Marnus Labuschagne’s slump in Test cricket: a breakdown of his drop in form

Marnus Labuschagne has experienced a pronounced decline in Test form for Australia, a downturn noted during the 2025–26 Ashes and the ongoing Test series in Bangladesh, according to a report published on August 22, 2026.

Labuschagne made his Test debut in 2018 against Pakistan and rose to the top of the ICC Test rankings early in his career. Across 64 Tests he has scored 4,726 runs at an average of 44.16, including 11 centuries and 25 half-centuries, with a highest score of 215, and has taken 14 wickets with his part-time leg-spin. His peak period came between 2019 and 2022, when his yearly Test averages were 64.94 (2019), 67.16 (2020), 65.75 (2021) and 56.29 (2022), and he compiled 3,789 runs in 43 Tests at an average of 53.36.

The issue has been the contrast between those peak years and recent seasons: Labuschagne’s Test average fell to 34.91 in 2023, 30.93 in 2024 and 20.84 in 2025. He has not scored a century since his 2023 hundred against England at Old Trafford and, since then, has collected only 937 runs in over 40 innings at an average of 26.03.

Form pressure intensified during the 2025–26 Ashes, when he managed 259 runs for the series at an average of 28.77, and continued into the Australia–Bangladesh series, where he was dismissed for 1 and 31 in one match. In the second Test at Mackay he was out for four in the first innings.

Observers have pointed to his inability to convert starts into large scores as a central problem: the method that once allowed him to occupy the crease and build big innings has become less consistent, with timing and confidence cited as issues and his tendency to play with a high individual method described as a contributing weakness.

Selection pressure has increased; Labuschagne was dropped for Australia’s 2025 tour of the West Indies before being recalled. Following Australia’s nine-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in Darwin his batting drew further criticism, and Andrew McDonald considered giving him another chance in the second Test at Mackay. Questions over his place at No. 3 are likely to persist until his form improves.

In World Test Championship (WTC) play Labuschagne has accumulated 4,520 runs; Steve Smith remains Australia’s highest run-scorer in WTC history, with Labuschagne listed directly behind him, and the second Test at Mackay is the next match referenced in selectors’ considerations.