New Delhi: After being left off the teams to play in South Africa and India next month, Marnus Labuschagne's chances of playing in the ODI World Cup seem to be over. However, he will have a chance to influence the selectors by starting for Australia A against New Zealand A.

The notable omission from Australia's 18-man ODI squad for the upcoming matches, which serve as the qualifiers for the World Cup in October, was Labuschagne.

"It is form based," chair of selectors George Bailey said about Labuschagne's omission. "We know Marnus at his best is good enough to hold down a spot in the one-day team, [but] we just haven't seen enough of it consistently in the role that we'd like him to do. Leading into the World Cup, there's some opportunities for others to get a bit more game time..

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"We've been really clear with Marnus. He's going to be part of some Australia A games around the same time, so he can focus on some white-ball cricket. Clearly, the squad we have going to South Africa have the frontrunning for [the World Cup] but Marnus, the age he is, the skillset he has, I have no doubt he'll play a part in one-day cricket in the future. We know at his best he can play a really important role in one-day cricket."

Early in the following month, Australia will reduce their list to 15 players, but they will be able to make changes up until September 28, the day following the final of the eight ODIs against India, where they will play three of the games leading up to the World Cup.

In the past 18 months, Labuschagne has paid a price for failing to build on a promising start to his ODI career. He has played in 17 games since March 2022, averaging 24.93 with a strike rate of 74.94. In his first 13 games, he averaged 39.41 with a strike rate of 91.13, which included a debut century against South Africa in March 2020.

Three one-day matches between Australia A and New Zealand A will take place in Mackay and Brisbane from September 10 to 15; the squad will be announced this week. Soon after that, the domestic Marsh Cup gets underway, giving Labuschagne another chance to represent Queensland in one-day cricket.

He will be able to participate in a full slate of Sheffield Shield games in October and November if he now misses the World Cup, as is expected, before the home Test season begins against Pakistan in Perth on December 14.

Despite scoring 328 runs at 32.79 during the Ashes series in England, Labuschagne did play well at Old Trafford, where he hit a century in the second inning.

Although it is unlikely that any of Australia's Test players will play in the five-match T20I series against India that will follow the World Cup, they will have very little opportunity to play any first-class cricket before the Test summer.

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The schedule may present particular difficulties for Cameron Green, who was benched for the final Ashes Test at The Oval. He was rested for the T20I series in South Africa, but if he is selected for the final World Cup squad, he won't have much time to develop his red-ball form and rhythm and stake out a spot in the lineup.

Before the Test series against Pakistan and the BBL window start on November 28, there will be one more round of Shield games. The round-robin games conclude on November 12, and the World Cup final is on November 19.

"A really important thing to remember with Cam [is] he's doing his learning at the coalface in international cricket," Bailey said. "Even as far as Test cricket [is concerned], he's going to play a huge role and be a really, really important member of that side; and he's going to be a really important member of our white-ball teams in the near future. He's certainly one where it's about giving him a little bit more time off to make sure he hits the ground running for the one-day series."

David Warner, who hopes to end his Test career at the SCG in early January, would only play in one Shield match for New South Wales, so the team's selectors would likely need to base their decision on his performance in the Ashes, where he averaged 28.50, to determine where he should play. For those vying to replace Warner at the top of the order, the first half of the Shield season will be crucial.

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