Marnus Labuschagne Dropped from Australia ODI Squad for Zimbabwe, South Africa Tours

Australia’s star batter, Marnus Labuschagne’s place in the Australian test team has come under further scrutiny after the middle-order has been left out of the ODI team for Australia’s upcoming tours to South Africa and Zimbabwe. The 32-year-old right hander has been struggling a lot with his form and he had a terrible outing for Australia in their recent assignments against Pakistan and Bangladesh.

With the team’s regular and seasoned players, Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh returning to the scheme of things, the Australian team selection committee had no option but to look past Marnus. It now remains to be seen whether the South Africa-born batter will be picked for the three test matches against the Proteas, considering his dismal show in Australia’s last assignment in the Test whites against Bangladesh.

New South Wales all-rounder, Joel Davies has got a maiden call-up to the Australian ODI team after impressing the selectors with a stellar performance in the T20 series against Bangladesh earlier this year. The left-hand batter Ollie Peake too has retained his place in the team.

Australia is set to play six ODIs against Zimbabwe and South Africa and these matches are being treated as an important part of the preparations for the upcoming Cricket World Cup in 2027, which will be played across Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.

Mitchell Marsh will lead the team in Zimbabwe, while the regular captain, Pat Cummins will take over the leadership role during the series against South African. Cummins and Marsh are both expected to share the captaincy in SA, depending on Cummin’s workload. Meanwhile, the team’s strike fast bowler, Mitchell Starc is also all set to return to action for the SA part of the tour and Josh Hazelwood has been named in the team for both ODI series.

Additional Pace Options

As Australia is all set to depart for their tour to the African continent, the team management has decided to add some more fire power in their pace bowling department as speedsters Billy Stanlake, Johnson Spencer have also been added to the squad. Spencer, a left-arm speedster last played an ODI in early 2025 before making a comeback to the Australian team in the T20Is against Bangladesh.

Australia have chosen not to shuffle players between the ODI and the Australian A squads that are set to tour India around the same time. Cooper Connolly who resumed bowling after recovering from his back injury had been earlier considered for the red-ball format matches to be played in India but he will continue to remain with the ODI Squad after his brilliant innings of 149 against Bangladesh in Mirpur.

The Zimbabwe series starts in Harare on September 15th, with the rest of the matches scheduled for September 18 and 20 respectively. Australia will then travel to South Africa and play their next three ODIs matches on September 24 in Durban, September 27 in Johannesburg and September 30 in Potchefstroom.

Australia's ODI squad for Zimbabwe and South Africa tours: Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Pat Cummins (SA only), Joel Davies, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Mitchell Marsh, Oliver Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc (SA only), Adam Zampa.