Marnus Labuschagne's batting skills in the middle overs would make him a better choice than all-rounder Marcus Stoinis in Australia's World Cup semi-final against South Africa here on Thursday, feels former captain Ricky Ponting.

Glenn Maxwell will return to the Australia side after resting from the final league game against Bangladesh on Saturday, and either Labuschagne or Stoinis will get the chop for the semi-final against the Proteas at Eden Gardens.

Ponting has backed Labuschagne to be in the playing XI for the semi-final match and wants batting all-rounder Stoinis to be dropped.

"I probably would (retain Labuschagne)... we’ve seen Australia have gone to Mitchell Marsh’s bowling before they used Stoinis," Ponting said on the Fox Cricket broadcast, referring to Australia's last league match against Bangladesh.

Citing the example of India's middle order, Ponting said it's Labuschagne who can do well in the middle overs.

"If you actually look at the numbers through this series, he (Labuschagne) hasn’t done a bad job, second leading run scorer... and I know the most important phase for Australia through this tournament they haven’t got right yet is their middle-order batting. They haven’t got that right and they need to fix that quickly," said the batting great.

“If you’re going to win the World Cup, you’re going to have to fix those overs 11 to 40, because so far in the tournament they’ve lost 12 more wickets in that period of time in the tournament than what India have through the whole tournament. India have only lost 20 wickets through that phase," he pointed out.

Labuschagne struck two classic fifties against the Netherlands and Bangladesh. He also drew much attention with his superb fielding against Bangladesh.

Ponting revealed that Labuschagne would have been dropped from the Australian playing XI that beat Afghanistan on November 7 if Smith was fit.