What Marnus Labuschagne experienced in the Perth Test against India could easily be his worst episode in professional cricket.
Over 57 deliveries and five runs across two innings, the Australian batter saw his pride and pedigree wrung out of him by the Indian pacers, as his side collapsed to a crushing 295-run win.
Labuschagne’s shuffle across the stumps, the lifeblood of his run-scoring method, proved to be the bane of his existence – Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj trapped him in front using sharp, full-length in-swingers.
It didn’t take too long for hordes of experts and fans to soon call for Labuschagne’s head, going into the Day-Night Test in Adelaide.
In fairness, this was not a knee-jerk reaction to the Perth ignominy. Over a year has passed since Labuschagne scored a hundred. In his last 10 Test innings, he registered seven single-digit scores.
But, just when the guillotine was about to be set in motion, Labuschage found his footing as he scored a patient, match-defining fifty in a comfortable Aussie win in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide last week.
A refurbished batting approach was key to his batting fortune reversal, highlighted by a subdued trigger movement across the stumps.
READ | Adelaide Test exposes India’s batting woes and over-reliance on Bumrah
“The things I changed were more pre-ball. It was my pre-ball set-up and getting a better alignment there, getting my head pushing more forward. They were all things before my trigger,” said Labuschagne in an interview with Cricket Australia.
Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne plays a shot on the second day of the second Test cricket match between Australia and India.
| Photo Credit:
WILLIAM WEST/AFP
Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne plays a shot on the second day of the second Test cricket match between Australia and India.
| Photo Credit:
WILLIAM WEST/AFP
Labuschagne’s knock though was largely overshadowed by yet another bashing-the-men-in-blue knock by Travis Head on Day 2.
But, Head’s onslaught was enabled in no small part by the way Labuschagne countered the Indian pace attack in the third session of Day 1, during the dreaded twilight period.
Under fading lights, Labuschagne left 37.3% of all the balls he faced as he curbed his run-scoring instincts. He was also aided in no small part by the exaggerated wide line adopted by the Indian quicks.
Labuschagne’s ability to leave the ball is central to his batting method. Since January 2019, among the top-10 Test run-getters, no batter has left the ball as often as him.