‘Lah-buh-shane’ makes his name
Game’s first concussion substitute proves he is made of stern stuff, writes Isabelle Westbury
He does not even pronounce his name correctly. It is unlikely, therefore, that in years to come, when comperes in pub quizzes announce the name of the first concussion substitute in international cricket, they will get it right either.
“Lah-buh-shane”, like champagne, is the variant Marnus has settled upon, easier off the tongue than his native Afrikaans version. A bottle or two might be called upon to celebrate Labuschagne’s first Ashes innings, a match-saving half-century, arising in the most unusual of circumstances. Yesterday morning, the young Brisbane batter woke up to rainy skies and the multiple formulas for the isotonic drinks his team-mates might need. A few hours later he had a Jofra Archer delivery hurtling into his helmet grille at 91.6mph. Labuschagne’s drinks bottle might require something stiffer in it, please Steve.
The player Labuschagne replaced, that man Smith, has by contrast both the most common surname in the English-speaking world (546,960 in Britain, at the last count) and one of the most recognisable in the cricketing one. Smith, a name derived from someone who works with metal, had the mettle to continue, but
not the medicine to allow him to do so.
The new concussion substitute protocol, introduced to Test cricket only 18 days ago, “shall be a like-for-like replacement for the player who has sustained the concussion”. What “like-for-like” means is contentious, and the International Cricket Council only last month clarified the match referee would determine if a proposed substitute fits that criteria.
He did, and soon we were speculating on what this entailed.
Would Labuschagne be walking out to a field of boos? Must he leave the ball only in a way deserving of its own highlights reel? Or could he deliver the impossible – a dependable, stubborn, top-order batter defying all convention in style and batting averages in this series so far? Archer continued the short-ball barrage, like-for-like. Despite playing just one innings, Labuschagne was the man hit most by Archer – three times.
“I was [surprised],” admitted Tim Paine, the Australia captain. “We wanted two [replacement players],” he quipped. “Smith is averaging 62, you should be able to bring a couple of batters in. Marnus played superbly for a guy in his third or fourth Test, he was hit hard in the face second ball, but I thought he showed great character, great skill and really good technique.”
For much of the final day at Lord’s, the most inexperienced on show looked the one most at ease. Smithsonian in nature, he alone was preserving the 1-0 series lead.
Until that contentious Joe Root catch. The understudy stumbled over his lines, but only during the most demanding of monologues; the applause therefore was both sincere and widespread once the final curtain fell. A draw, a series lead, and with Smith’s concussion unlikely to clear before Thursday, a shoo-in for the next Test.
It would not be an Ashes contest without a sprinkling of South African-origin conjecture thrown in. “Born in South Africa, moulded in the County Championship” is a refrain normally suited to one of the English contingent.
But Labuschagne has played more County Championship matches this season than any England player. He is also the only man in the country to have surpassed 1,000 first-class runs in Championship cricket, 1,114 at an average of 65.52 for Glamorgan.
Perhaps we should not be surprised he slipped so serenely into Smith’s shoes. Yesterday, Australia’s batters blunted a probing onslaught in a manner England could not in the previous Test. Take note, England, for there is no shame in Labuschagne.