Ian Healy slams Australia for not making struggler batters Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith play grade cricket

Australia’s preparation for the Adelaide Test and plans to resist shoehorning struggling batters into a Prime Minister’s XI match have already come under fire.

Captain Pat Cummins knocked any idea of his teammates playing extra cricket in the wake of their embarrassing 295-run defeat in The West Test on Monday.

That’s despite calls for under-fire batter Marnus Labuschagne to either play club cricket at the weekend, or for the PM’s XI in a two-day tour match from November 30.

Labuschagne failed in both innings of the heavy defeat, dismissed twice by Jasprit Bumrah, but his spot is all but assured, with Cummins flagging Australia are not likely to make changes.

Australian players will head home to rest on Tuesday, with the only change to their preparation likely to be an extra day of training in Adelaide before the second match on December 6.

“I don’t think so, we might change our prep a little bit, we might get to Adelaide a day early with this game finishing, give us an extra day of preparation leading into that second Test,” Cummins said post-match.

“But we will go home for a couple of days and regroup in Adelaide.”

But former Australian wicket-keeper Ian Healy said he wanted to see players sent back to their clubs this weekend.

One of the biggest issues facing Australia if their Perth loss becomes a full-blown form crisis is that there is just one more round of Sheffield Shield matches to be played between now and after the start of the second Test in Sri Lanka in February.

“It was a terrible weekend. We went into that match with absolutely no excuses, the preparation was absolutely perfect for what they wanted,” Healy told SEN on Tuesday.

“I had fears that they were a little underdone and we were light on for runs and they emerged, they certainly did emerge.

“They are doing it again for Adelaide, they are giving themselves the whole time off. I might have used it more constructively than that, but let’s see how it goes.

“I would like a fair percentage of our players to play grade cricket on the weekend too.”

Cummins was confident all-rounder Mitch Marsh would be available to bowl in all five matches this summer, despite pulling up sore from the first Test.

“He is battling a couple of little niggles since the UK tour, so the main thing is he’s in there as one of the top six batters in the country and bowling is a bonus,” he said.

“He was a little bit sore towards the end of this Test match so the next 10 days are a chance to freshen up and try and get it right, we will see how he goes.

“Ideally he will be able to bowl in each Test match.”