Melbourne, Sept. 7 -- Australian cricket's chief of selectors' George Bailey expressed optimism in struggling batter Marnus Labuschagne's ability to contribute positively during the upcoming South African Tests, adding that not only Marnus, the entire batting unit is not functioning as per expectations.

Despite having no Test century to his name since the Ashes trip to the UK back in 2023, Marnus continued to survive the axe as he was named for the all-important Test series between World Test Championship (WTC) table-toppers Australia and South Africa starting from October 9 onwards.

During the previous assignment against Bangladesh, Marnus had managed scores of 1, 31 and 4 as the Aussies yet against underwhelmed with their batting agai...