‘Player we need’: Coach backs Marnus to turn it around, but flags change as squad revealed

Australian coach Andrew McDonald has not guaranteed that the XI was demoralised by India in Perth in what was a record-breaking defeat in the opening Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy will feature in Adelaide.

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Speaking in Perth prior to the departure of the Australian squad to their respective home states for a brief break, McDonald would only confirm that the squad chosen for Perth, which includes reserves Scott Boland and Josh Inglis, will travel to South Australia.

“We’ll assess that as we go along. But as I said, the squad that’s in (Perth), they’ll be there in Adelaide,” McDonald said.

The declining form of Marnus Labuschagne is the chief concern but the Australians will also monitor the fitness of all-rounder Mitch Marsh, who pulled up gingerly at times when bowling.

“Has he pulled up okay? We’ll wait and see,” McDonald said.

“We knew that Mitch was slightly underdone coming in, but I thought the performance in the first innings was satisfactory.”

The latter is in top six batters in the country and performed well in the second innings when reaching 47 before chopping Nitish Kumar Reddy on to his stumps while attempting to cut, so is a certain starter. But the amount of overs Marsh can bowl is in question.

The former is in the midst of a significant slump and has averaged just 13.66 across his last 10 innings in Tests. In those innings, Labuschagne has scored 10, 1*, 3, 5, 1, 2, 90, 6, 2 and 3.

After Labuschagne’s struggles in the opening innings, where he made just 2 from 52 balls, McDonald declared the Australian No.3 would bat with more intent in his second knock.

The Queenslander got off the mark with a fine shot but soon became Indian skipper Jasprit Bumrah’s seventh victim of the match when out LBW.

McDonald, though, said the 30-year-old will be given every chance to recapture his best and that he was a required player.

“I mean, we look at the way he plays and when he’s at his best, and when we’ve seen him at his best, he’s shown great intent at the crease,” he said.

“So that’s an ongoing discussion and that ebbs and flows within players’ careers, at the moment, he’s in one of those patches, and no doubt, he’ll be getting critiqued externally, but internally, we’re really confident that at his best, he’s the player that we need.”

Asked whether Labuschagne’s dip was due to a technical issue or a mindset problem, McDonald said there were a few factors at play.

“It’s always a combination of factors, isn’t it, with the mindset?” he said.

“There’s some technical aspects to that also within the mindset play. So as I said, we’re really confident that he can turn that around.”

Quizzed as to whether there was enough depth in Sheffield Shield ranks to shake up the Australian squad if the struggles continue, McDonald said there were “ample players” showing talent in domestic cricket.

“We have enough players banging down the door. I thought we saw that with Brendan Doggett … in the Australia A series, I feel as though we’ve got some depth there to call upon,” he said.

“I think sometimes people look at the pure numbers (with) what’s happening in Shield cricket and it’s really sometimes hard to get a connection to the surface that they are playing on and we feel we have ample players who are in form.”

As he assessed the wreck from Perth, McDonald said that while the Australians were a little surprised by the pitch, they were always wary of India bouncing back from the shock 3-0 whitewash on home soil against New Zealand.

“Maybe the surface surprised us a little bit,” he said.

“It had a bit of juice on day one and then … it changed significantly. It dried out and the cracks were on offer. So the surface may have surprised us a little bit.

“In terms of what to expect from India, we were well aware of what they were capable of. They were a team coming off … a home defeat, so we knew that they would be at their best and primed for it. And we felt we were as well.”

After captain Pat Cummins rubbished suggestions there was a split between the batting and bowling groups, McDonald said the morale was strong despite the record loss to India.

“I think the morale is pretty good. I think this team is really good at the highs and lows. It’s quite a level team,” he said.

“We’ll be covering through all of that. No doubt (there will be) conversations around how we improve the appetite to get better. So I don’t think morale is an issue at this stage.

“But I think we’ve got to own it, so there will be a semblance of review around what we’ve done (and) what we can learn from it, and we’ve got to own that as coaches as well.

“So we will look back to how we prepared (and) what was good. Was there anything that we missed in that? Were there any surprises or other challenges?”

He also suggested that the margin, which was India’s biggest triumph on Australian soil, was not necessarily indicative of the gulf between the two nations.

But the Australian coach acknowledged the extended break between the opening two Tests was a blessing in terms of rebounding from the defeat.

“I think that’s more for the external (critics) to sort of dig into (but) sometimes the margins don’t really reflect what happened in the game, and sometimes you can get on the wrong side of the conditions and things like that,” he said.

“I’m not saying that was the case here, but sometimes margins are slightly irrelevant. The key for us is getting back to the way that we want to play and the way that we know that we can play. So that’ll be an external factor.

“We’re not going to sit there and say we lost by X amount of runs. What does that mean for the next Test match? It’s about how we want to play, the plans that we want to put in place, the execution around that, and the personnel to do that.

“We’ve got a bit of assessment to do in terms of bodies coming out of this game and we’ll work through that over the next week.

“(But) I think the gap has come at a good stage and gives space, because we go home, get into a little bit of work back home, and then we’ll reconvene.”