Leading the charts for the most test runs in 2019, Marnus Labuschagne has really come about in this Australian test squad. In a recent press conference, Marnus pointed out how everything about his career has been turbulent, yet rewarding at the same time. Things have always been a bit unconventional for the 25 year old from Queensland.
Avid Cricket lovers first heard the name in the year 2014, when he took a screamer at short leg as a 12th man to dismiss India’s Varun Aaron. Videos starting surfacing of Marnus catching slices of onions in his house to work on his reflexes. 4 years down the line, he made a place for himself in the test side at Dubai, and didn’t get off to the best of starts; scoring just 81 in his first 4 innings, with a duck in his very first test innings.
With a few decent knocks against India earlier this year, he made sure that he got on to that plane to England for the all-important Ashes. It was in this series that we saw something new. In the second test at Lord’s, Steve Smith had been hit in the head by a 92 mph Jofra Archer delivery. He had to go off, and Cricket saw it’s first ever concussion replacement in Marnus Labuschagne. There were doubts about how he’d fare against a lethal bowling attack and testing conditions. The classy right hander put all those talks to bed as he eased his way to a half century in not just that innings, but in his next 3 innings after that.
He has taken that form with him against Pakistan, and scored 2 back to back 100’s. There might be a lot of unconventional things about Marnus’ career, but there certainly isn’t anything unconventional about his technique, as he is now scoring runs for fun at number 3 for Australia. As someone who enjoys watching classy test batsmen go about their business, I hope Marnus Labuschagne can continue having years like this one, and make that no.3 spot his very own.
-Vibhor Dubey
The Average Cricketer 