Australia head coach backs Marnus Labuschagne after tough WTC cycle

Labuschagne's average over the World Test Championship cycle is just below 28 after he failed to make a big score against South Africa in the final of the competition.

McDonald revealed his place in the team was the topic of much discussion ahead of the game, but that the leadership team decided to stick with the batter after he had been ever-present in the team throughout the cycle.

It turned out not to be the best decision as he only managed scores of 17 and 22 against the Proteas as Australia fell to a five wicket loss.

However, despite his struggles, McDonald has no illusions about how important he is to the future of Australian cricket.

"He's a big part of the future of the team," McDonald said, according to ESPNcricinfo. "Anyone that averages 45, 46 in Test cricket at that age is important. We've got older players there that are closer to the end than the start. We've got some younger players that are coming in.

"If he can get his game in good order for the next four or five years, he can underpin that batting order. But at the moment, he'd be disappointed with the returns. He's missed out on big scores. But we're confident that he could return to his best and hence why we keep picking him. And at what point do we stop picking him?

"I think most players across their journey get dropped at some point in time. I think he had a positive week here where he worked on the right things and had a great prep. There's no harder worker than Marnus. Now it's really just about the returns. And at the moment, as I said, he'd be disappointed."

Another player who struggled was Usman Khawaja, but McDonald backed the opener to rediscover his best form sooner rather than later.

"He's on contract, he's an important player. He gives us stability at his best at the top. And we like to look at our players at their best," McDonald said.

"No doubt, a couple of failures here and people then start to talk about maybe it's the end. I don't see an end date with the way he's training, the way he's preparing, the way he's moving.

"He went back to Shield cricket, got 100 last [season]. So I think he's got plenty of runs left in him. It'll come down to his inner drive and the way he prepares.

"It was a bit the same with Davey as well. The way he moved, we saw some positives in that. We knew that the runs were around the corner. We feel as though Usman's got a big part to play."