Glenn McGrath Claims Player's Career Is Over if He Fails in Fifth Ashes Test
Australia’s third-highest ever wicket taker, Glenn McGrath, has claimed that one Ashes star could be playing for his career during the Sydney Test.
England, who secured their first Test win in Australia since 2010 during Melbourne’s fourth Test, will be hoping to make it 3-2 in the fifth and final Test of the series.
Of course, one thing is for sure, and that’s the fact that Australia will lift the urn regardless of the result, having already retained the Ashes with three successive wins in Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide earlier in the series.
But from several players’ personal perspectives, there’s a huge amount to play for at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
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Australia batsman Usman Khawaja will play for his country for the final time, having announced his retirement ahead of the game, while several out-of-form players on both teams will be playing for their futures.
Just one batsman – Travis Head – has averaged more than 50 in his eight innings, with several Australians sporting a poor average of less than 25, including Marnus Labuschagne (24.86) and Jake Weatherald (20.86).
And Australia legend McGrath believes that Weatherald must improve to ensure he remains part of the Australia set-up moving forward.
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In his BBC Sport column earlier this week, the 55-year-old, who won six Ashes series between 1994 and 2007, wrote: “You have to put a high price on every Test match.
“Jake Weatherald needs a score to secure his future, having failed to pass 20 in any of his past four innings.”
The 31-year-old Tasmania opener scored a series high 72 in the second test at the Gabba but has failed to make a half-century since then - scoring 17 not out, 18, 1, 10 and 5.
Meanwhile, McGrath’s former captain, Ricky Ponting, agreed with him and admitted that Weatherald has “not really set the world on fire [in] the last few games”, when he spoke to SEN Cricket.
McGrath also said that all-rounder Cameron Green, who has averaged 18.66 with the bat, is “under pressure” but maintained that he will have “an amazing career” despite recent injury setbacks and a lack of form.
Again, Ponting shared a similar opinion and homed in on the fact that Green has been given opportunities throughout the batting order.
“Obviously, the biggest one is the Cameron Green scenario,” Ponting explained.
“They’ve moved him from No 3 to No 5 to No 7 — he’s been all over the place. He averages under 30 in Australia with the bat, just over 30 in his career in 36 Tests, with just two hundreds. He’s got to find a method and a tempo that’s going to work for him.”
Labuschagne’s future may also be uncertain, given that he has not registered a century since the 2023 Ashes – 38 innings ago.
On the future of the Labuschagne, Ponting added: “As we saw with Marnus in first-class cricket and the one-dayers (ODIs) that he played, when he got flat wickets, he looked a completely different player.
“When Marnus is at his best, he makes batting look relatively easy. But when he’s at his worst, he makes batting look really difficult. The last few weeks, he’s made batting look difficult. There’s definitely a question mark over him.”
Luke Davies