MITCHELL JOHNSON: Australia should drop Marnus Labuschagne for second Test against India in Adelaide

Australia are 1-0 down in a home Border-Gavaskar Trophy series and the Aussies are being questioned from all directions. Some of the questions are warranted.

Let’s start with selection. Steve Smith’s form is a serious concern. He looks like he has lost his sharpness we are used to, missing balls on his pads that in the past were easy runs.

Marnus Labuschagne — after a lengthy poor run with the bat — should be replaced for the second Test in Adelaide. And that’s not for the sake of having someone pay the price for the thrashing in Perth.

I honestly believe the best thing for Labuschagne at this stage would be to be left out. It would give him a chance to play some Sheffield Shield and club cricket away from the pressure of playing for your country and I feel he would benefit from that more than going out there trying to survive against Jasprit Bumrah and co.

Some will say, hold up a minute, it’s just the first Test of a long summer. But this has been going on for a while. In his past 10 Test innings, he’s passed 10 just once.

Dropping Labuschagne, 30, would not mean he doesn’t still have a long future in the Test team or that he’s the wrong player to bat at three. For the time being in this form slump though, we need him to be better – which means making big runs, not bowling bouncers and risking the potential of injury when that’s the job of the bowlers in the team.

Cricketers get dropped at some point of their careers and it’s about how you bounce back from that. With him at the moment, it’s not through a lack of trying everything to get better and bat his way back into form. He’s trying to fight through it in the middle but it’s not currently working.

The next question becomes, who do you pick? I keep hearing that there is no one in shield cricket. Well, that’s quite insulting if you’re one of the domestic batsmen hearing this who would do anything for the chance of a baggy green.

I heard a stat on Labuschagne when he was first picked to play Test cricket for Australia. He averaged somewhere around the 36 mark. We have many shield players with that type of average currently, and if the selection of Nathan McSweeney is anything to go by, you don’t need to be a specialist or be picked to bat in your preferred position.

Coming up against India who now have their tails up will be tough for anyone, but sometimes having fresh players in the team can bring the boys together in an energetic way. A new batsman could also come in clear minded without having gone through a defeat like we just saw and play their natural game with less pressure.

But it sounds like Labuschagne will get another shot in Adelaide, where the pink ball will swing and seam around, especially when it’s new.

The positive for Australia will be the long break in between the first and second Tests to give them some time to reflect and come up with some new plans. The Aussies have an unbeaten record in day-night Tests, though they also had a perfect record at Optus Stadium in its short time as a Test venue.

The other big talking point has been preparation. It seems the Aussies’ was quite different to that of the Indian team who had played a Test series against New Zealand leading leading into this series.

While they lost the series, they had match fitness, miles in the legs and time in the middle on their feet for long periods of time.

That in itself gives you a better chance of coming into an important series. What India achieved for most of days two and three was to keep the Aussies in the field for a long time. Mitchell Starc and the bowlers were on the ground for every day of the Test match and that takes a toll.

You could see some tired legs and a lack of match practice but overall, I thought the Australian bowlers did a good job. They could have been a bit more aggressive at times - instead of using No.3 batsman Labuschagne to employ a bouncer barrage which I couldn’t quite understand - but the bowlers toiled hard with Josh Hazlewood the standout.