Ricky Ponting calls for Marnus Labuschagne to be dropped from Test team after prolonged slump

Australian cricket great Ricky Ponting has said the time is up for Marnus Labuschagne is the Test team after another underwhelming performance.

Battling Labuschagne made four before he missed a delivery on leg stump that hit his thigh pad and rebounded on to the stumps. It followed scores of one and 31 in the first Test.

Labuschagne’s spot in the team was already under pressure heading into this series and that has only increased after making a total of 36 across three innings.

Ponting acknowledged there is no one banging the door down to command a spot, but still believed it’s time to bring in some fresh faces.

“There’s no one sort of belting the door down number-wise in Sheffield Shield cricket. But everything you hear coming back from the Shield players is how much more difficult it’s become to bat in Shield cricket with the way that the wickets are,” he said on Channel 7.

“Well look with this Aussie team and the selectors I admire what they’re trying to do with Marnus. I admire that they tried to get him and get him back to his best but it’s been way too long now.

“And I’m on record as saying I would have made that change at the start of this series because I think there was enough evidence for me to suggest that he was a long way from rediscovering his best.

“And he’ll look back at today, he was unlucky, there’s no doubt about that. But that tends to happen to you as well when you’re struggling and you’re trying to find some form and some rhythm.”

Ponting highlighted Labuschagne’s inability to hurt bowlers off the back foot as the veteran’s biggest issue.

“The worry that I had with him, I think there’s some technical deficiency there but he’s making the margin for error for the bowlers too great,” he continued.

“With the length, he can’t score off the back foot. If you can’t score off the back foot in Test cricket then batting becomes a hard game.

“That’s the great difference between when he was at his best and we highlighted some graphics earlier, three or four years ago where he’s averaging 65-68 for a test year. That was when he was scoring off front foot and back foot.

“I think the bowlers now know that they can run in a bowl anywhere from almost 10 metres to about four metres on off stump and out as wide as they want and he can’t hurt them.”

Ponting said he’s had enough chances and the time is right for a change.