Marnus Labuschagne has been dropped for Australia’s first Test against the West Indies, with opener Sam Konstas and reserve wicketkeeper Josh Inglis recalled for the series opener in Barbados.
On Friday morning, Cricket Australia confirmed that vice-captain Steve Smith would miss the first Test due to the finger injury he sustained during last week’s World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s – but he could return for the second match in Grenada.
Inglis and Konstas will replace Labuschagne and Smith in the starting XI, but the final team will be confirmed closer to the game.
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“Steve needs more time for the wound to heal so we’ll give him another week’s rest and assess his functionality after that,” chief selector George Bailey said in a statement.
“We have made the decision to give Josh and Sam the opportunity to replace Steve and Marnus. We are excited to see them get the chance to further their fledgling Test careers.
“In his only opportunity in Test cricket to date, Josh was outstanding in Sri Lanka, showing great intent and ability to put pressure on the opposition.
“Marnus at his best can be a really important member of this team. He understands his output hasn’t been at the level we, or he, expects.
“We will continue working with him on the areas of his game we feel he needs to rediscover. We continue to value his skill and expect him to work through the challenge positively.”
During the recent World Test Championship cycle, Labuschagne scored 974 runs at 27.82, with just one century in 38 innings. He hasn’t reached triple figures in his 30 most recent Test knocks.
The underperforming Queenslander was elevated to opener for the World Test Championship final, scoring 17 and 22 against the Proteas and caught behind to seamer Marco Jansen on both occasions.
“I think most players across their journey get dropped at some point in time, and time in the middle is important,” Australian coach Andrew McDonald told reporters last week.
“(Labuschagne) had a positive week where he worked on the right things and had a great prep, and sometimes great prep is never a keen indicator of performance. So you can have a bad prep and still perform, but he was doing a lot right.
“There’s no harder worker than Marnus, and now it’s really just about the returns.”
Konstas, who turns 20 later this year, returns to Australia’s Test side for the first time since last summer’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he scored a swashbuckling half-century on debut against India at the MCG.
Inglis, a regular member of Australia’s white-ball teams, cracked a century on Test debut against Sri Lanka in February, but was dropped for the World Test Championship final to accommodate Cameron Green’s long-awaited return.
The first Test between the West Indies and Australia gets underway at Bridgetown’s Kensington Oval on Thursday at 12am AEST.
