Labuschagne dropped for New Zealand Test series

Australia's chair of selectors George Bailey has confirmed that Marnus Labuschagne will not be considered for selection for the upcoming four-Test series against New Zealand.

Bailey told reporters on Monday that the national selection panel had made the decision to announce Labuschagne's axing now to allow him to go back to captain Queensland in the Sheffield Shield without the conjecture hanging over his head.

Selectors are due to pick Australia's Test squad for the first Test against New Zealand after the fourth Shield round which starts on Wednesday.

"We won't be considering Man for selection for certainly for that first Test, but for the New Zealand series," Bailey said. "And the reason I just wanted to clear that up today is I think there's going to be or has been a lot of speculation around his 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 the next round of Shield cricket, and we'll pick the rest of that squad at the end of the completion of round four of Sheffield Shield."

Bailey was asked whether Labuschagne would be considered for the following tours of India or England in 2027.

"It's still possible, absolutely," Bailey 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 that just hasn't happened. I don't think we've ever ruled anyone out permanently to ever not be selected again, and that's no different in this."

Bailey admitted there will be a challenge in terms of re-selecting him based off domestic form given when he was dropped in 2025 he score five centuries in 10 domestic innings for Queensland across two formats before being recalled for the Ashes, only to fail to find the same prolific scoring at Test level again.

"He's always been an incredible performer at first-class level," Bailey said. "So I expect that that'll be the case [again]. So yeah, there's no message to go back and do anything in particular. I mean, I think the currency is pretty obvious, but he's had a long run in that role, albeit with the gap during that West Indies series and post that back at domestic cricket. So for him, I think the the plan is just to go back and focus on playing as well as he can for Queensland for a period of time."