Australia prepares for top order reset following WTC final loss

It's going to be a new look team in the West Indies

A disappointed Pat Cummins has signalled changes for the Australian team for the first West Indies Test later this month. Steve Smith’s injured finger almost guarantees this will happen, but the team was already committed to something of a reset.

Summer’s sensation, Sam Konstas, is odds-on to regain his place at the top of the order, and Marnus Labuschagne’s place looks precarious.

Selectors opted to open with Travis Head in the two Tests in Sri Lanka following the summer and Marnus Labuschagne for the WTC final.

“We always knew this was going to be a one-off. It’s pretty specific conditions over here,” Cummins said when questioned about the top six after losing the Test Match Championship Final to South Africa.

Labuschagne batted well in Melbourne during the summer and has made some good contributions, but he looks out of form and has not reached three figures in 30 innings.

Cummins conceded the batting had been a problem with Australia collapsing to be 6-66 in the second innings and were 4-67 in the first.

Australia has experimented with Steve Smith, Nathan McSweeney, Konstas, Travis Head and more lately, Labuschagne, as Khawaja’s partner since David Warner’s retirement in the 2023-24 summer.

Labuschagne, Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green, the openers and No.3 contributed a paltry 49 runs in the match.

“Losing the toss on day one and being sent into bat, it’s never going to be easy for the top three, but I think there’s probably quite a few people in the line-up who wish they could have done a bit more. And the top three was an obvious one in this game,” Cummins said after the match.

“Yeah, I think in some ways you do (look for a reset at end of WTC cycle). I don’t particularly know why. But it does feel like a little bit of a fresh start.

“Fast forward a couple of years you start maybe thinking about who will hopefully make the final, who is going to be in that and do we want to maybe get some games into them?

“Do we feel like now is the right time to change or do you hold with the team that got us to the final?

“I think we’ve got a couple of weeks before the first Test in the Windies, but we’ll sit down and have a bit of a think. A new WTC cycle in some ways does feel like a bit of a reset.”

Cummins conceded they may have to bring in another batter to the squad for the West Indies to cover for Smith whose finger will be in a splint for eight weeks, but Josh Inglis is with the team and is a good chance to play the first Test in Bridgetown on June 25.

“Give it 48 hours (for) everyone to digest, and they’ll work out if we do, or we keep it the same squad. No one has made up their mind yet.

“It’s probably more for the selectors than me to sit down and map it ahead. I think say in white ball series, a lot of the time you build on four year cycles around World Cups for ODIs and I think maybe it’s an opportunity in the Test match to do something similar.”