Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne's extended struggles a sign of players who are 'a little bit too comfortable', says Michael Vaughan

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has voiced his concern for the state of Australia's Test team, suggesting a lack of depth behind the first-choice batters is contributing to a poor run of form from its top six.

Australia's frail batting line-up was ruthlessly exposed in the first innings of the first Test against India as Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana wreaked havoc with a moving new ball.

As India piled on a second innings lead in Perth behind a brilliant century from Yashasvi Jaiswal on day three, Vaughan questioned whether Australia are "a team that's just starting to get over the edge".

"The batting unit that's had plenty of success in the past — there's some great players in it — but consistently now for a number of games they've just not managed to score the runs that many would have expected, including themselves," he said on Fox Cricket's coverage.

Australia's struggle to replace David Warner a sign of things to come for a waning golden generation Photo shows Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja wait to bat during training Australia finally settled on Nathan McSweeney as its new opener, but his selection after an ill-fated 'bat-off' at the domestic level was reminiscent of Steven Bradbury's iconic win at the Winter Olympics.

"I just wonder what's underneath this batting line-up really pushing the standards in the first team. The standards generally get driven in a team because you've got many players pushing for places in it, and I just don't see too many doing that.

"I just look back to Australian cricket when Australia had a batting line-up that had many world-class players in it, I reckon you had seven or eight world-class players not in it. And that's just in the batting department.

"If I was an Australian fan, I'd be concerned that there's just not the level of quality waiting to get into this team. Maybe some in the team are just a little bit too comfortable because they feel that they're not getting pushed from those outside of it."

Vaughan's concern does have some merit. Australia struggled mightily to find a full-time replacement for David Warner this summer before eventually settling on Nathan McSweeney, who has traditionally not opened at the domestic level, purely because the actual domestic openers all failed to present a compelling case to be selected.

While a lot of the pre-series chatter was focused on the lack of form of India's batters, namely Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Australia's top order has been equally scratchy in 2024.

Marnus Labuschagne has averaged just 26.88 for the calendar year on the back of averaging 34.91 in 2023 and has not scored a Test century since July of that year, yet has virtually faced no threat to his number three spot. He looked like a deer in headlights against Bumrah with his tail up on day one.

Steve Smith fared better than Labuschagne in 2023, averaging 42.22, yet that mark was well below his career average of 56.63. So far in 2024, Smith has failed to score a century in 11 innings while averaging just 26.62.

Australia's number three, Marnus Labuschagne, is horribly out of form and has been for the best part of two years. (AP: Trevor Collens)

Travis Head has been a white ball monster, as evidenced by his World Cup final heroics 12 months ago, yet has averaged just 23.22 so far in Tests this year. Mitchell Marsh has averaged 24 so far for the calendar year.

It is hard to imagine Australia's top six of the 90s or 2000s putting up such paltry figures without facing any pressure for their spots.

The problem with this generation is there is not a Michael Hussey, Brad Hodge or even a Martin Love waiting in the wings ready to grasp the opportunity. The ill-fated bat-off for the opening spot proved that.

Hussey, who was forced to wait until 30 before making his Test debut, raised a similar question to Vaughan.

"I'm not willing to jump at shadows yet," he said on Fox Cricket's coverage.

"The Australian batting order's had one innings so let's not be too reactive and judge their whole careers on one particular innings.

"I'm willing to wait, be patient, let's see and maybe you can make more of a judgement after three Test matches. And then, if you do want to make some changes, who are you going to bring in? Who's been banging down the door?"

KL Rahul (R) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (L) put on an opening partnership of over 200 runs in India's second innings in Perth. (Getty Images: Izhar Khan)

Australia's batting situation is a stark contrast to that of India, which is poised to have a major selection headache ahead of the next Test in Adelaide.

Skipper Rohit Sharma will return, while regular number three Shubman Gill is also a chance to play after missing this Test due to a thumb injury.

Sharma's replacement in the opening spot, KL Rahul, has been a rock at the top of the order in both innings for India.

When you look at the line-ups both teams rolled out for Perth, this Test appears to be the one Australia had to have.

India is without its skipper, its first-choice number three, arguably its second-best paceman in Mohammed Shami and also chose to rest two all-rounders who have a combined 855 Test wickets and 10 Test centuries.

Reinforcements are coming for India, and fast. Any confidence the tourists lost in that home beatdown at the hands of New Zealand has not only returned, but it has doubled.

The best the home side can hope for is the older, more prolific versions of their suddenly scratchy household names return, and return quickly.

The biggest Australia-India moments

Throughout the summer, we'll look back at some of the best stories and share our own favourite moments from Australia and India's cricket history.

Join us to continue the conversation on our live blogs and on the radio over the summer before the readers' top 10 is revealed ahead of the fifth Test at the SCG from January 3.

Select five options to make sure your vote is counted.

Click here to read article