Marnus Labuschagne axed from Australian Test side

Marnus Labuschagne has been dropped from Australia's Test side to face New Zealand this summer.

Enduring a poor run of form over a number of years, Labuschagne has lost his place in the Test setup, with selection chair George Bailey finalising the decision on Monday morning.

The number three has averaged just 23.66 across the last 10 Test matches; the 32-year-old was walking the selection tightrope, with Bailey today confirming the call that Labuschagne will not feature across the series.

"At this stage we won't be considering Marn for selection for certainly that first Test, but for the New Zealand series," Bailey said.

"There's been a lot of speculation around his place in the team, and so I think this gives him a little bit of space and clears up a bit of conjecture as we work through the next round of Shield cricket."

While he won't be considered over the summer, the former world number 1 Test batsman - who is without a Test century in 49 innings - won't go without consideration in future.

"It's still possible (that he returns), absolutely," he said.

"And I think we all know how good and how effective Marnus can be at his best. But that performance hasn't been there. I think he's missed some opportunities, some promising starts in Darwin and even in South Africa as well, to go on and get a big score that we'd like and would have liked for some time, and that just hasn't happened. But I don't think we've ever ruled anyone out permanently... and that's no different in this case."

With four Tests against New Zealand over summer, Bailey is yet to determine who will replace the number three.

"There's a handful of players that are really well placed at the moment as we work through that over the next week or so to finalise how we think that squad in particular will structure up, and the options we'll have within that," he added.

"We just felt like this one was an important one, as much for Marn, just to give him the space. He'll obviously go back and captain Queensland. (We) didn't really think it was beneficial to have that conjecture hanging over his head for the next week or so."

The first Test is set for December 9 at Optus Stadium in Perth.