Labuschagne made just 20 in Australia\u2019s huge first Test win over Sri Lanka, even as the rest of the top six batters made big scores. The right-handed batter is coming off an average home summer, where he made 232 runs at an average of 25.77.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cNo, not from our end. The top six will likely stay the same and you could probably extend that out to the top seven, I think they functioned well as a unit. We had a slight shift in the order of events for our training session based upon different workloads required in that main session, so there was nothing to read into that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe firmly believe that Marnus is a good player of spin, he\u2019s been here before and he\u2019s made a century at this ground also. With the way that the unit functioned in the first game, it's hard to see why we wouldn't go back there again,\u201d said McDonald to SEN Radio.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Ahead of the second Test starting on Thursday, Australia decided to release young Sam Konstas from its squad, with the right-hander set to play in New South Wales\u2019 next Sheffield Shield game against Queensland at the Gabba.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
McDonald said the reason behind the move to send Konstas home came down to their \u2018win now\u2019 mentality, and he\u2019s not concerned about the youngster missing out on gaining experience in spin-friendly conditions, especially with Australia A set to tour India later in the year.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe prioritise every Test match and we've been on the record around that numerous times. We have that as our underpinning philosophy in making decisions so to go against that potentially shifts the group's thinking around how we prioritize every Test match,\" said McDonald.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe feel as though the Australia A program has some great scope for development of players, and later on this year there'll be a group of players that head over to India and play in spinning conditions in long format cricket, so we feel as though that will bridge the gap, our Australia A programs.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe prioritise every Test match and we've been on the record around that numerous times. We have that as our underpinning philosophy in making decisions so to go against that potentially shifts the group's thinking around how we prioritize every Test match,\" said McDonald.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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