“Utter madness”: Whateley perplexed by “inexcusable” Marnus dismissal

Marnus Labuschagne’s Test career appears to be hanging in the balance after a disastrous performance in Gqeberha.

Once again, Labuschagne appeared steady at the crease making a solid start in the first innings before catching an edge that flew to Simon Harmer.

The second innings dismissal was arguably worse, having successfully overturned an LBW decision that missed the stumps by 4.7mm. Labuschagne looked to attack spinner Harmer on the final ball of the over and skied one into the wind and was caught at long on.

Simon Katich and Gerard Whateley were highly critical of the mode of dismissal.

“That is just daft cricket,” Whateley said on SEN Cricket.

“Complete and utter madness from Marnus Labuschagne who really does get lost in this Bermuda Triangle.”

Katich added: “What the hell was that.”

“He can hang his head backwards and looked up at the sky but when you’re trying to hang on for a draw, and you try and go downtown over mid-on into the breeze after getting a reprieve – you’d have to wonder what’s going through his mind.

“It’s not like it’s a one off because it’s been going on for three years.

“How many players in the history of Australian cricket have been given this many opportunities without scoring a hundred?

“Back in the day you were lucky if you didn’t get dropped after missing out 10 times, let alone 50.”

Whateley believes that this has to be the final straw for Australian selectors when it comes to picking Labuschagne in the side.

“I just think if Australia lose this Test match then he has to be dropped now,” Whateley said.

“It’s just a matter of principle, we cannot tolerate this from our senior players.”

Whateley believes that the lack of runs for Labuschagne can be attributed to an enormous amount of pressure which is only growing as his lean period continues.

“I'm sure it's born out of a degree of anxiety and constant pressure, but the cold hard truth is he's gone 48 innings, which is unprecedented for a top order batter without a century, he's been given so much rope, and he let the team down,” Whateley said.

“Never mind his own personal failure. He let the team down. There was a chance to be one down at stumps, at which point this Test was salvageable, and he opened up the order and we end up four down at stumps.

“That frankly is inexcusable.

“And if you live any layer of standards, that's going to cost him his place in the team.”

It was the first time since 2019 that Australia had been forced to bat twice, losing 13 wickets on Day 4.

Labuschagne has been under pressure for the last 12 months to recapture the form that saw him become the number one ranked batter in the world from 2021 to 2023.

Since February 2023, Labuschagne has only managed an average of 28.75 with the bat. Of late, he’s consistently getting a start before succumbing to a good ball or a brain fade in the 20s-30s.

The latest innings doesn’t help Labuschagne’s case to hold his spot with the calls growing louder for him to spend some time at Shield level.

“I think there's a chance he plays again, but not for now,” Whateley said.

“So there are two ways to look at this.

“One is that, this is the worst example of the sunk cost fallacy we've seen in sport, or the second is this is the investment of faith, that they see enough to believe that it is about to happen.

“But there's an endpoint to faith without results.”

The final day of play sees Australia needing to hold on for a draw as South Africa hunt six wickets in a bid to level the series before the final Test match in Cape Town next week.