Labuschagne has found his red- ball mojo again ©Getty
In a way, the break in play owing to lightning being spotted within 10 km of the Adelaide Oval came at an opportune time for George Bailey. It’s not that he wasn’t keen to stay back till the end of the day’s play. But the chief selector had more or less already seen what he’d come to see. Or assessed the one player above everyone else he’d come to assess. With the overall verdict quite evidently an overwhelming tick in the right direction.
For, only 10 or so minutes before the players were whisked off the ground by the umpires, Marnus Labuschagne had walked off with his bat raised. Though initially upset with himself for having been nicked off, he’d acknowledged the applause from his Queensland dressing-room and the smattering of hardcore spectators spread around the Oval after having recorded his second consecutive 150+ score in the Sheffield Shield season. And for all purposes having etched his name back into the playing XI for the opening Ashes Test in Perth.
Just like a week earlier, this had felt like a trademark Labuschagne innings. To start with, it was the rate at which he’d scored his runs, his strike-rate in the early 80s after his 160 against Tasmania at home had come at a strike-rate of 77. The busyness and the energy at the crease that made him stand out so much when he was at his pomp was back. As was his ability to score through both the off-side and the on-side off similar line and length deliveries.
He was driving balls down the ground, but also through extra cover and cover point, a feature that had seemed lost in his batting during his form slump. He was also then clipping and flicking deliveries through square leg and to the right of mid-wicket, rather than being content with pushing them to mid-on. And when the South Australian bowlers went short, he was waiting to pull and hook with the kind of commitment he’d rarely displayed in the last two years. Like the pulled boundary that brought up his 150, the ball racing off the manicured Adelaide Oval outfield and smacking into the boundary boards.
This was a Marnus who was back to manipulating the fields rather than the Marnus who’d get manipulated by the fields like we’d seen him in the lead-up to him losing his place in the Test team. There was positivity on show with every aspect of his batting.
Gone was the overly pessimistic ‘fight to survive’ tepidity to his approach in the middle. Gone was the excessive shadow-practising in between deliveries. Gone was the hyperfocus on his body alignment before and after he’d faced a delivery. Gone was the stubborn resistance to letting his natural instincts take over.
There was freedom in the way he was moving his feet. There was freedom in the way he was moving his hands. There was freedom more than anything in the way he was going about building his innings. All the while, Bailey sat in the coach’s box, nodding away and taking in this very notable return to form of the batter around whom the future of Australia’s Test batting was deemed to revolve, before he was dropped in the Caribbean.
Marnus had looked a shadow of himself in the 14 Tests leading to his axing, during different stages of last summer, where his sole intention at times looked to centre around not getting out. Regardless of whether he had anything to show for it on the scoreboard.
In his own words, the No 3 had spoken about wanting to solely bother about scoring runs and not get overburdened by technique and analysis.
Those were exactly the words Bailey, and the rest of his selection committee were waiting to hear from him. But more importantly, this was exactly the kind of knock they’d been waiting to witness from him. One where he’d simply gone back to a method that had worked for him so remarkably well at his peak. But also one where he’d if anything emerged as potentially an even better batter than the one who’d been a fixture in the team for six years.
It wasn’t as dramatic as recapturing the lightning in a bottle that made him the No 1 Test batter in the world four years ago when the England last toured here for the Ashes. But simply rekindling with it.
If Marnus is indeed back in the mix, and a shoo-in for the playing XI, then the question remains of where he bats, and who he comes in for.
For now, the Australian team management and selectors have been very clear about not being in a position yet to confirm a batting line-up for the first Test in Perth apart from the fact that Usman Khawaja will open and Travis Head will bat at No 5.
In an ideal world, the 31-year-old will just go back to No 3, his natural position, with Khawaja finding an opening partner at the top. That would mean Cameron Green, who ironically was replaced by Marnus in the ODI squad owing to low grade side soreness, drops down to No 6 and plays as the sole all-rounder. In place of Beau Webster, who’d be rather unfortunate to miss out.
There’s also the question of where Steve Smith, who will captain Australia in Pat Cummins’ absence, fits into the equation. if Smith does choose to go up a spot or is indeed convinced to do so to fit Green in at No 4, then there’s every chance of Marnus slotting in as opener, like he did at Lord’s for the World Test Championship final.
But if Smith continues to bat at No 4, where he’s tasted enormous success in the last few months, then in all likelihood, Marnus will come in at his preferred one-drop position.
Will Sam Konstas remain Usman Khawaja’s opening partner? ©Getty
That would leave the door open for further intrigue around who that opener would be. Sam Konstas still remains the incumbent despite his poor returns in the Caribbean. And speaking of lightning in a bottle, he finally made a notable score in his fourth innings of the Sheffield Shield season. Even rewinding the clock to Boxing Day last year by reverse ramping his nemesis Scott Boland for six en route to a 53. You wonder though if that’ll be enough to help him keep his place with the likes of Jake Weatherald, fresh from a blistering 92-ball 94, and Matt Renshaw, who scored a century last week, breathing down Konstas’ neck, as the 20-year-old continues to feel the heat.
In the same way Marnus had to for nearly 18 months before finally losing his rather cemented place, which he looks all set to regain in just over a month’s time to face the English in Perth.
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