While there has been a lot of discussion and debate in the media about the wretched run of Marnus Labuschagne in Test cricket, he is not the only Australian batter who has been short of runs in the format in the last 18 months. (More Cricket News)

Australia have struggled with their opening partnership after the retirement of David Warner, Steven Smith’s numbers are as dismal as Labuschagne’s while the lower-order trio of Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey also haven’t exactly lit the stage on fire!

We do a deep-dive on the dwindling fortunes of Australia’s batting in Test cricket.

Australia’s opening woes

The instability at the top of the order has cost Australia dearly this year. They have used four different opening pairs in Test cricket in 2024. The move to push Smith to the top of the order post the retirement of David Warner did not exactly reap dividends.

Smith partnered with Usman Khawaja and the pair put together just 174 runs in eight innings at an average of 24.85. Overall, Australia’s batting average for the opening wicket of 23.5 places them as low as number 8 in 2024! That is how feeble they have been at the top of the order.

There were just two fifty-plus opening-wicket stands while on as many as nine instances, Australia lost their first wicket with the team score at 25 or lower! This included three occasions when the opening partnership was broken without a run on the board and four innings when it was dislodged in the first over.

A lower Top 6 average than Afghanistan

Australia’s top 6 average a shocking 29.01 in 2024 which places them at number 8 – even Afghanistan’s top and middle order have fared better in the calendar year! Only Zimbabwe, West Indies, Bangladesh and Ireland have worst corresponding averages.

Collectively, Australia’s top 6 have scored just two hundreds and nine fifties in 2024 and failed in 36 of 67 innings which is a failure rate of almost 54% - very high for a side which still boasts of being the number 1 Test team in the world!

Australia has crossed 300 just once in 12 innings and the only reason why they still came out victorious in four of the six Tests they have played this year is due to their bowling.

Their world-class quartet of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon has bailed them out of trouble time and again and made up for the inadequacy of the batters. And when they haven’t - Brisbane (vs West Indies) and Perth (vs India) has happened!

Cracks in Australia’s batting line-up were first noticed on their tour to India in February last year. Since then, the team collectively averages 28 with the bat which places them as low as number 6 after Sri Lanka, England, India, Pakistan and New Zealand.

Labuschagne & Smith – How the mighty have fallen

Labuschagne was hailed as the next big thing in Australian cricket after Smith and for good reason. He started his Test career with a bang rising to unprecedented heights shortly after making his debut in October, 2018.

From the beginning of 2019 till the end of 2022, he had an aggregate of 2990 runs in 30 matches at an average of 62.3 with 10 hundreds and 13 fifties. Only Joe Root had scored more runs and registered more hundreds than Labuschagne in this four-year time-frame.

Labuschagne’s decline in form started from the home summer of 2022-23. He failed in two of the four innings against South Africa and registered just one fifty in eight innings in India. Since the start of 2023, Labuschagne has an aggregate of 1048 runs in 19 Tests at a paltry average of 31.75 with just one ton and seven fifties.

His failure rate in this period is almost 50%! Any one who watched Labuschagne bat at Perth would be worried – he consumed 52 deliveries scoring just two in the first innings in what was a very painful existence at the crease!

Smith, hailed by many as the greatest Test batter after Sir Don Bradman, was at the peak of his prowess till the end of 2022. He had a Test average of 60.58 in 91 matches in a career spanning 12 years! His downfall really started from the India tour in February where he failed to register a single fifty-plus score in seven innings!

Yes, he did make amends with a ton in the final of the World Test Championship at The Oval against the same opposition and followed that with a hundred in the Ashes Test at Lord’s but what was concerning were his failures in between.

The real slump started at Leeds in the same summer and since then Smith has scored just 589 runs in 11 Tests at an average of 31. He has crossed fifty on just four occasions in as many as 22 innings in this time-frame but hasn’t managed to reach the three-figure mark. Smith’s Test average, while still outstanding, has fallen to 56.4.

Labuschagne and Smith were the two pillars in the Australian top-middle order. They were like the He-Man and Super-Man in Australia’s Test line-up. Their combined failure in the last 18 months, and that too simultaneously, has been the biggest reason for Australia’s batting troubles in this period.

No major contributions in middle & lower order

Not only does Australia have problems with their opening combination and the top-order, their lower-order is also massively short of runs this year. The swashbuckling Travis Head has an aggregate of 298 in 10 innings at an average of 29.8 with only two fifty-plus scores in 2024.

Mitchell Marsh has been inconsistent with the bat – he has got a couple of fifties and forties this year but failed in the other six innings. Alex Carey, Australia’s best batter of 2024 (after Cameron Green) has an average of barely 34 in the calendar year!

The Pink Ball Test will be a massive test for the likes of Smith, Labuschagne and Khawaja. Significant contributions from the Big 3 and a win for the home team will not only act as a balm for the humiliation at Perth but also keep the series alive.

However, a loss for Australia would see the Border Gavaskar Trophy move half-way into India’s cabinet with the threat of an Indian hat-trick Down Under – and that would have disastrous consequences.