Marnus Labushchagne's hopes of featuring in an Australian ODI World Cup squad came crashing down when he was not picked up in the squads announced to tour South Africa and India next month. Marnus was playing for the Australian ODI team up until the announcement for the South African tour was made public and hence his omission comes across as a noteworthy surprise as Australia's preliminary 18-player squad will compete in the forthcoming series.
Unlike his Test career, Labuschagne's ODI career hasn't received the kind of push or the flying start it needed. In 30 ODIs played thus far, the right-handed batter has just scored 847 runs at an underwhelming average of 31.37. His strike rate too isn't something that is fairly impressive either and reads 83.20, including a century and six fifties.
While speaking on Labuschagne's snub, the chair of selectors for Cricket Australia (CA) George Bailey pointed out that the 29-year-old batter is good enough to occupy a spot in the Aussie OD side but a lack of consistency has led to ouster.
"It is form based. We know Marnus at his best is good enough to hold down a spot in the one-day team, we just haven't seen enough of it consistently in the role that we'd like him to do. Leading into the World Cup, there's some opportunities for others to get a bit more game time," said Bailey as reported by ESPNcricinfo.
"We've been really clear with Marnus, he's going to be part of some Australia A games around the same time so he can focus on some white-ball cricket. Clearly, the squad we have going to South Africa have the frontrunning for [the World Cup] but Marnus, the age he is, the skillset he has, I have no doubt he'll play a part in one-day cricket in the future. We know at his best he can play a really important role in one-day cricket," he added.
However, all is not lost for Marnus as he still can make a case for himself as it is highly likely he will play for Australia A against New Zealand A from September 10 to 15 in three One-Dayers. The squad for the same will be announced this week. After the culmination of the series against the Kiwis, he will also have the opportunity to play in the Marsh Cup (Australia's One-Day competition in the domestic circuit) and get back in the reckoning to earn a spot in the final squad selected for the World Cup starting October 5.
