Steve Smith Gets Warning Signals From Ex-India Head Coach, Australia Asked Not To Repeat Big Border-Gavaskar Trophy Mistake In Ashes 2025

Australia are staring at another important summer that is ahead of them. The runners-up of World Test Championship 2025 are currently preparing for The Ashes. The five-match Test series played between Australia vs England for the coveted urn is often considered as the pinnacle of cricket, and it never fails to produce moments that go down in the pages of history.

The Aussies are the defending champions of The Ashes, and they would like to keep things in the same way. It has been a decade since England won The Ashes, and courtesy of a fiery brand of Test cricket that they play, they'll fancy their chance of reclaiming the urn.

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Greg Chappell Warns Australia Against Promoting Marnus Labuschagne

Despite starting the series as favourites, it is a no-brainer that Australia have some serious issues to address. The hosts of Ashes 2025-26 will already be without the services of their skipper Pat Cummins and will be led by Steve Smith in the opening Test, but it is the opener's slot that will be worrying the defending champions.

Marnus Labuschagne is in red-hot form currently, and he has forced his way back into the Australian Test side. Labuschagne had lost his way a bit after the WTC 2025 final, and his promotion as an opener is to be partially blamed for it. The Aussies have included specialist opener Jake Weatherald in their squad, but former Australia player and ex-India coach Greg Chappell feels that the Australia captain Steve Smith might go ahead and use Labuschagne as a specialist opener.

"Despite selecting a specialist opener, Jake Weatherald, in the squad, I believe the intention is to send Marnus Labuschagne out to open with Khawaja. Opening with Labuschagne is extremely risky. He should bat at three, as that is his specialist spot. Ian Chappell and Ricky Ponting were exceptional No. 3 batters for Australia in their time. That doesn't mean that they would have been as successful had they been press-ganged into opening," wrote Chappell in his column for ESPNCricinfo.

Chappell also wrote that batting early in an innings and the mindset to open the batting are completely different things, and Australia must avoid taking that call with Marnus Labuschagne again.

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Dissecting Labuschagne's Woes As An Opener

Marnus Labuschagne was given the role of an opener alongside Usman Khawaja during Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2025-26. He managed to score only 232 runs at an average of 25.78 from five matches and nine innings that he played in the series.

Labuschagne then reprised the role of an opener in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 final against South Africa, but he managed to score 17 runs in the first innings and 22 runs in the second innings.