Marnus Labuschagne, the World Cup final hero in Ahmedabad, has been dumped from Australia’s one-day squad just a year out from their title defence, as selectors rip into an underperforming ODI outfit and fast‑track fresh blood for a defining tour of Africa.
While the Test side heads towards a marquee series in South Africa, the one-day group is being shaken up. The headline: Labuschagne, unbeaten on 58 in the 2023 World Cup final against India, is out.
The message is blunt. Past glory no longer buys a guaranteed seat on the plane.
Labuschagne out, Peake in
Labuschagne’s omission comes after a lean stretch since that famous night in India. His highest ODI score since the World Cup is an unbeaten 77 in England two years ago, and he managed just one half-century across the recent tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Those struggles have collided with a broader malaise. Australia have been ordinary in the format for some time. They lost 2-1 to Pakistan in late May, then 2-1 again to Bangladesh in June. Since edging England 3-2 in the northern summer of 2024, their only ODI series win has come against India in 2025/26. Either side of that, defeats to South Africa and Sri Lanka have piled up.
So the axe has swung.
Labuschagne is one of five players cut from the ODI squad that toured Pakistan and Bangladesh. Matt Short, Ben Dwarshuis, Todd Murphy and Liam Scott also miss out as selectors search for a sharper, more adaptable group for conditions they will face again at next year’s World Cup.
Into that pressure cooker walks 19-year-old Victorian Ollie Peake.
The teenager, highly rated inside Australian circles, will tour Africa just weeks before the Test squad lands in South Africa and a year before a World Cup on the same continent. He has been picked for the three-match series against Zimbabwe this month, alongside fellow bolter Joel Davies.
For Peake, it is a fast-track introduction. For Labuschagne, it is a jolt at a critical moment, with Test selection for South Africa looming.
Big guns return, World Cup intent clear
This is not a throwaway tour. The cavalry is coming.
Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, the champion quicks who have underpinned so much of Australia’s white-ball success, have confirmed they will play in the ODI leg in South Africa before the Tests. Both have signalled their intent to be central figures at the 2027 World Cup as well.
Chairman of selectors George Bailey made it clear the six-game stretch – three ODIs against Zimbabwe, three against South Africa – is being treated as a dress rehearsal.
“This six-game series is an important lead-in to next year’s World Cup, being played in the same countries, for the group,” Bailey said.
He welcomed the return of key names, saying: “As such it’s great to have Mitch (Marsh), Travis and Josh returning, then Pat and Mitch (Starc) for the SA leg. This gives us our core of players mixed with some we think will continue to make an impression.
“For Ollie and Joel, who we rate very highly, it’s another fantastic opportunity and a further chance for them to continue their exposure and growth in the Australian team.”
The spine is clear: Cummins, Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Adam Zampa and Marsh. Around them, the selectors are experimenting.
Shared captaincy, sharpened focus
Marsh will captain the side against Zimbabwe, with he and Cummins set to share leadership duties through the South African leg. Australia are not just hunting form; they are stress‑testing combinations, roles and leaders.
They know the numbers. They know the recent record is not good enough for a team that lifted the trophy in India in 2023 “in famous fashion”, as Bailey put it.
The Zimbabwe leg offers a chance to reset. South Africa, where they have already stumbled in recent years, will be a far sterner gauge of how quickly that reset is taking hold.
The squad taking shape
Australia’s ODI squad for Zimbabwe and South Africa:
- Xavier Bartlett (QLD/Gold Coast Cricket Club)
- Alex Carey (SA/Glenelg Cricket Club)
- Cooper Connolly (WA/Scarborough Cricket Club)
- Pat Cummins (NSW/Penrith Cricket Club)
- Joel Davies (NSW/Manly Warringah Cricket Club)
- Nathan Ellis (TAS/Lindisfarne Cricket Club)
- Cameron Green (WA/Subiaco-Floreat Cricket Club)
- Josh Hazlewood (NSW/St George Cricket Club)
- Travis Head (SA/Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club)
- Josh Inglis (WA/Joondalup Cricket Club)
- Spencer Johnson (SA/West Torrens Cricket Club)
- Mitchell Marsh (WA/Fremantle Cricket Club)
- Oliver Peake (VIC/Geelong Cricket Club)
- Matthew Renshaw (QLD/Toombul Cricket Club)
- Billy Stanlake (TAS/Greater Northern Raiders Cricket Club)
- Mitchell Starc (NSW/Manly Warringah Cricket Club)
- Adam Zampa (QLD/Sutherland Cricket Club)
It is a squad that blends established match-winners with players still learning how to breathe at international level. Bartlett’s pace, Johnson’s left-arm angle, Connolly’s all-round promise and Peake’s precocious talent all sit inside a group expected to deliver now, not in theory.
For Labuschagne, watching from home, the timing could hardly be more uncomfortable. For Australia, with a World Cup defence on the horizon and a format slipping away from them, it is exactly the sort of hard call they can no longer avoid.
