Marnus Labuschagne‘s long-time batting mentor has cautioned him against over-training ahead of the second Test in Adelaide and be less rigid in his gameplan as he attempts to emerge from what is the most serious batting slump since he became an international cricketer.
While collectively Australia’s top order is underperforming, Labuschagne is the one squarely in the spotlight after two ugly innings at Optus Stadium. On the first day he laboured to 2 off 52 balls before missing a straight delivery from Mohammed Siraj and on the third evening left a delivery from Jasprit Bumrah that would have smashed the stumps.
The twin failures left Labuschagne with 123 runs from his last 10 innings of which 90 came in one knock against New Zealand in March. Overall this year he is averaging 24.50 in Tests to follow a 2023 where that figure was 34.91 having been above 60 in three of the previous four years.
Labuschagne was already back in the nets while the opening Test drew a conclusion in Perth on Monday and was expected to train individually before the squad links back up a day earlier than planned in Adelaide.
“I’d probably just half what he usually does. Just try and clear it up a bit,” Neil D’Costa told ESPNcricinfo. “Keep working on reacting more, not having such rigid plans. Every batter goes through this. Almost everyone around 30 years old – I don’t know why it’s that number – seems to have this glitch. He’s a guy we all know, he loves playing cricket. He never leaves a stone unturned. He’s super fit. Does he overthink things? I don’t know, possibly everyone does.
“When someone gets to the stage where they are the No. 1 player in the world, they are going to become a target. He couldn’t keep going. He’d be averaging 80. At some stage, I don’t want to say it had to happen…it happens to a lot of players. They try a bit too hard and like [Virat] Kohli you have to keep trusting yourself, trusting your processes, trust what you do. Go back and find a way the next day.”
Labuschagne’s lack of positivity at the crease came under significant focus after his first innings. “The manner that he’s been playing, for me it’s such a negative mindset, and he has been for a little while,” Aaron Finch said on Channel 7. “What that does, when you’re coming up against great attacks – Jasprit Bumrah is as good as we’ve ever seen, Siraj a very good fast bowler – it just allows them to settle in, you’re not putting much pressure on them, so their margin for error becomes huge.”
D’Costa, who has already spoken with Labuschagne since the Test, believed he was within his rights to think he could leave the delivery from Bumrah. “That ball was 8.3 metres [from the stumps], that’s going over the stumps all day, every day,” he said. “It just hit the top of the stumps. With a millisecond to make a decision, he saw the length and let it go and it skidded. Are we going to lose sleep over that? I’m not. Would you like him to score runs, absolutely.”
Labuschagne’s two lbw dismissals in Perth come amid a period where a tendency to be caught playing away from his body had crept into his game which D’Costa partly attributes to him working on his white-ball batting.
“If you look at how he plays, he lets a lot of balls go. He always has,” he said. “Think maybe he was working really hard at being a one-day player so for a little while he lost that. And he started nicking. Let me tell you, they [India] bowled so well. They knew exactly he wanted that ball on leg stump. They did not bowl there. If anything, they bowled wide. This team is really well prepared. They executed very well.”
After the defeat, captain Pat Cummins acknowledged Labuschagne’s difficulties would be a focal point in the days ahead.
“Marn, along with quite a few guys in the team, didn’t have the week we would have wanted,” he said. “It’s no secret how hard the batters, particularly Marn, works in the nets. He’s always trying to find those small marginal gains. This week will be a lot of conversation with the coaches around his approach and what he could be doing differently.”
