The next step in the evolution of Marnus Labuschagne

“I have to get a cut, huh?” Marnus Labuschagne’s prank on assistant coach Andrew McDonald came at the end of one of his usually long networking sessions. This was on MCG networks two days prior to the previous Boxing Day test in the series. The Australian No. 3 had discovered a small flaw that had crept into his technique over the course of the offseason before the summer. It had been almost an hour and a half now, which included a long animated chat with McDonald, first trying to figure out how it must have happened and then what he could do to fix it.

It seemed like a fairly straightforward topic, at least in the way Labuschagne seemed to explain to his coach. He talked about his front foot and what position he was getting into after his back and the trigger movement. The right-hander seemed to suggest that last summer, when he couldn’t stop scoring runs, his left foot landed straight on the field while his right ended up with his toes aligned with the stump. It meant that not only was his head in a firm and straight position, his posture was also open enough for him to line up better with the ball.

This time, however, he felt that his front foot was landing lightly on his body and thus tilting the entire lineup. It meant that his head would fall off every time he tried to play a ball straight and full to the side. It also meant that she was straying too far from the ball when she was short and attempting a shooting shot. He had gotten into trouble with both scenarios during the Adelaide Test. And Labuschagne was now adamant in his attempt to put it back in order.

While McDonald listened to it and also chimed in with a couple of ideas, he also seemed to ask Labuschagne not to get too dragged on his feet. It almost sounded like a reminder that regardless of the fact that he wasn’t feeling his best, he was still scoring runs. McDonald called it “positive reinforcement.”

However, it has been the story of the Labuschagne season in general. From the moment he attacked in his first Sheffield Shield game against Tim Paine’s Tasmania in Adelaide. He’d been knocked down three times before he even hit 40, he didn’t seem to be himself, but he still bounced back to make a pretty good century.

It has been the case on a few occasions since then for Labuschagne as well. The Indians have been generous to him by missing a few chances every time he hit. And it has cashed practically each of those occasions.

Having looked absolutely sublime during a great 2019-20 season, what Labuschagne has shown in recent weeks is that he has taken the next step towards potential greatness. Or he checked that box anyway with the ability to score runs, and lots of them, even when he’s not looking his best.

However, Friday (January 15) at the Gabba was the most untimely fall of all. India’s incredibly inexperienced bowling attack had somehow found a way to turn back the Australians on a day of batting. And if captain Ajinkya Rahane had held on to the lead Labuschagne offered when he was still 37, the visitors could have ended the opening day on a commanding note. But after failing to really make the Indians pay at the beginning of the series, Labuschagne decided to do it in his homeland with his fifth century of trial.

Still, it was the best he had seen all summer. His feet and head seemed to be in perfect harmony. He wasn’t straying too far from his own body, and there was a fluidity to the way he touched both the clips on his pad and the pull, especially from Shardul Thakur. However, the line of attack from India to Labuschagne was slightly different in Brisbane. Instead of holding it straight with the two square legs in place, they threw much more off the stump, testing their patience on that side of the field.

The numbers would later reveal that Labuschagne had left more deliveries at this entrance than before. But there was still the problem that he squared off a couple of times with angled deliveries that straightened late: once Rahane dropped him and the other time he was lucky enough to have the ball fall between a swooping Cheteshwar Pujara and a Rishabh Pant jumping behind the gate. .

What he did differently here was play with much more positivity, his impulses were firmer and his jerks energetic, as he seemed more willing to go to the ball than in this series. He was also very eager to stay out of place in the face of the slower-paced Indian attack, once Saini had especially limped off, and to feature much more of him in every installment, literally. It was a show of confidence from the two very decent scores he posted on the SCG last week.

Back in the MCG networks, Labuschagne seemed so determined to strike a perfect balance that he began to comment on his own improvement. And it wasn’t just to himself that the eccentric Queenslander was telling how his feet were returning to their place.

“Look, look Moisés, look, better head position,” he yelled at Moisés Henriques in the adjoining net, although his partner did not seem bothered by this exclamation.

“What is that foot doing?” He chided himself another time. And when McDonald threw a gorilla at him that made him get into a slightly awkward position to shoot, he declared to his coach that he would have used the ball to his face rather than allowing himself to be satisfied with where he ended up in his stance. These are just a few of the quirks you expect to find in a Labuschagne networking session.

He’s more of a hitting pedant than even Steve Smith. Because he never seems satisfied unlike his hitting guru.

Marnus Labuschagne’s story only seems to get more and more notoriety every time he hits. At the Gabba, on a crucial day as far as the series is concerned, he proved once again that he can hold the court when the spotlight is on him. But in this, his next evolutionary step, he’s also shown that he’s not obsessed with scoring runs in a certain way until he does. However, when it comes to his desire to achieve perfection with his skills, he simply knows that he can never give himself a “limit.”