Horrific year for Marnus Labuschagne; 3 players Australia should drop after Ashes 2025-26

Labuschagne and Steve Smith - (Source: AFP)

On Saturday, December 27, England scripted history as the Three Lions registered their first win on Australian soil after almost 15 years. The last time the visitors won an Ashes Test down under was back on January 3, 2011. 

The Baggy Greens had already claimed the Ashes 3-0 before the MCG Boxing Day Test. However, for the recently concluded match, it was a low-scoring thriller as England chased down 175 runs with four wickets in hand. The bowlers were on point for England as they restricted Australia to less than 200 in both innings.

After the MCG defeat, the pundits rushed to point fingers at things not working within the Australian team, and this article will also aim to look at the players who should be dropped from the team after the Ashes 2025-26.

1. Usman Khawaja

Usman Khawaja is struggling for runs, and it is high time that Cricket Australia now looks past him. The 39-year-old managed to amass just 153 runs in five innings, averaging 30.60. Besides his form, the southpaw is 39-year-old and has become injury prone in recent times. 

Talking about his performance in Ashes, Khawaja registered a single-digit score in Perth and missed the Gabba game because of injury. Further, he was demoted down the order from the 3rd Test, where he scored a fifty, but failed with the bat in the recently concluded game. In the MCG Test, Khawaja only amassed 29 runs in two innings, including a duck.

Further, looking at Khawaja’s Test numbers in 2025, he amassed 614 runs in 18 innings, averaging just 36. Now, since Australia are no longer looking at Khawaja to open the innings, they can bring in a more suitable batter at No.4 than the southpaw.

Let's look at Khawaja's numbers in 2025 and in Ashes 2025

2. Marnus Labuschagne

Marnus Labuschagne is also struggling for runs, and it has been the case with the right-handed batter for the entire year. Talking about Labuschagne’s numbers in 2025, then the right-handed batter has just 271 runs in 15 innings, averaging 20.84.

For the unversed, In the last 41 years, Marcus Harris is the only Australian top-five batter to play 10 or more Test innings and finish a calendar year with a lower average than Marnus Labuschagne.

Let’s look at Labuschagne’s dip in average across the years.

• 2018 - 20.25
• 2019 - 64.94
• 2020 - 67.17
• 2021 - 65.75
• 2022 - 56.29
• 2023 - 34.91
• 2024 - 30.93
• 2025 - 20.85

Further, in Ashes 2025, Labuschagne has amassed just 174 runs in eight innings, averaging 24.86. 

3. Nathan Lyon

Nathan Lyon has been an absolute legend of the game and Australia’s finest spinner in the past decade. However, his age is catching up, and the 38-year-old is struggling to remain fit. Lyon took just five wickets in three innings in Ashes 2025 and was ruled out of the entire serious because of hamstring injury.

 The right-arm off-spinner was dropped for the 2nd Test and now since he underwent a surgery, Lyon is unlikely to be part of Australia’s future tour plans. 

Talking about Lyon’s numbers in 2025, he has just 29 wickets in 14 innings, managing a strike-rate of 47.2. Further, Australia have replacements like Todd Murphy, Matthew Kulhemann ready in the mix-up to be brought into the playing XI. 

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