Archer hit ‘a blessing in disguise’ Labuschagne on feeling the full force of England’s paceman
Marnus Labuschagne’s 91.6mph Ashes welcome prepared him for the fray, he tells Tim Wigmore
On the fifth morning of the Lord’s Test, Marnus Labuschagne was, in the timehonoured fashion of players omitted from the side, training hard in the nets. His practice was interrupted. It was Tim Paine, Australia’s captain.
“He said, ‘Look mate, you’re probably playing,’” Labuschagne recalls. “From that stage, I started getting my head around it.”
Labuschagne would be drafted into the cauldron of an Ashes Test as the first concussion substitute in the format’s history.
And so, a few hours later, with Australia in strife at 19 for two, out walked Labuschagne, in Steve Smith’s customary position at No4. From his second ball in Ashes cricket, Labuschagne was hit flush on the grille by Jofra Archer.
“It definitely gets you going, which was maybe a blessing in disguise,” Labuschagne says of being hit by Archer’s 91.6mph bouncer. “All your senses are going, your eyes are opening wider, your pupils are going, you’re watching the ball as hard as you can.
“All the adrenalin, all the excitement’s rushing and you’re focused on the ball. There’s not really much else going on there.”
It hardly disproves Paine’s declaration last week that “Marnus is strange – he seems to enjoy getting hit in the head”.
“When you do get hit in the head, especially early in your innings, it definitely gets you going, it gets your beans flowing, gets you bubbling and fired up,” Labuschagne adds.
“So, that’s always good because you get that extra adrenalin rush – it makes you watch the ball a bit harder and stuff.
“It’s always good when it’s not a flush hit, it hits your grille or just skims off your head.”
He could be discussing types of flower arrangements, not the risk of brain injury from a cricket ball.
Being hit second ball of his Ashes debut was the prelude to Labuschagne giving a very passable impression of Smith.
He made 59 to ensure Australia saved the Lord’s Test; scores of 74 and 80 in the third Test, in a game in which only one other Australian made a score over 33, ensures that Labuschagne will keep his berth when Smith returns for the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
Rather than worrying about replacing Smith – “he’s too good to even think about that, he averages 63” – Labuschagne’s approach has
been altogether simpler. “You’re going in there trying to do the best job for your team. That’s all, and that’s all I wanted to do and what my focus was.”
Yet there are some clear parallels between Smith and Labuschagne. Both are cricket-obsessed. “All I ever wanted to do was play cricket for Australia,” Labuschagne says. Until this summer, Labuschagne’s favourite Ashes memory was helping to operate the Hot Spot cameras in 2010, aged 16, during the Brisbane Test when Peter Siddle took an Ashes hat-trick. “I was working, getting paid 90 bucks a day to watch Test cricket. I thought it was a bargain back then. I was like, ‘This is the dream – I’ll do this for free.’”
Like Smith – who has an English mother – Labuschagne has family links with a Test foe. He was born in Klerksdorp, South Africa, and his family emigrated to Queensland when he was 10.
But, while Labuschagne is primarily a product of Australian cricket, the influence of his first cricketing hero – Jacques Kallis – is discernible in his equanimity at the crease and his meticulous judgment. Labuschagne has left 35 per cent of balls against pace this Ashes.
To South Africa and Australia can be added a third nation that moulded Labuschagne: Wales. After five middling Tests in 2018-19, when Labuschagne was fast-tracked into the Australia team because of the absences after the Cape Town “Sandpapergate” affair and his useful leg-spin, he was not awarded an Australian national contract in April.
So, an early-season deal with Glamorgan was a largely nondescript county move. But through his singular weight of runs – 1,114 Division Two runs in 10 games, including five of his nine first-class centuries – Labuschagne was selected for the Australia trial game. There, his 41 out of a firstinnings total of 106, earned his Test berth.
“I really enjoyed playing for Glamorgan, I enjoyed the staff and everyone there, the coaches and the players. It really did help me a
Australia's average by batting position Labuschagne’s third Test performance highlighted
‘Adrenalin rushes in – your eyes are opening wider and you watch the ball as hard as you can’
lot playing in these conditions, learning the small, intricate things that you need to change from game to game, innings to innings, playing on greener wickets, more spinning wickets, up-and-down wickets, playing on outgrounds. I learnt a lot about the game in that 10-game stretch.
“Speaking to people that have played here a lot, there’s just a few small things you need to make sure you do a lot better over here. Especially with the Dukes ball, there’s more swing, you probably need to be stiller for longer because the ball’s swinging. The ball can nip a bit more here so you need to make sure you play the right line, make sure that bat’s coming through straight. Just a few small things, but things you probably can’t just do in a oneweek stretch. You need to make sure you do practise.”
Wherever he is playing, constant for Labuschagne is the eagle on the bottom of his bat. This, he explains, is there to remind him of one of his favourite passages from the Bible, Isaiah 40:31, which Labuschagne recites. “For those who hope in the Lord, He shall renew their strength. They shall soar on wings like eagles; they shall run and not grow weary, and they shall walk and not be faint.”
The eagle, which Labuschagne attached to his bat after chats with his wife – whom he met at church – and mother, is “just a reminder that God is here and you’ve just got to keep having faith in the midst of everything and the intense pressure and stuff, that you’ve just got to keep your eyes on the prize.
“I tap my bat and it’s there but, subconsciously, I’m not always thinking of it every time I look down. But definitely before I go out and whenever there’s something to be thankful for – there’s definitely moments when I do look down, very thankful.”
His mother has even been known to write Bible verses on the bottom of Labuschagne’s inner soles in his cricket shoes.
Labuschagne is not shy speaking about his faith, including with his friend and Queensland captain Usman Khawaja.
“I’ve definitely talked to Ussie about faith and stuff and we love having conversations about that. It’s great learning about other people’s religions and faiths.
“My faith has always been part of my life since I was growing up as a child. It’s still a massive part of me now, obviously my whole family – I think that’s how we base our whole community around, the support network. That’s how it works. I’m so thankful for them.
“And, obviously, with my faith, that’s helped to keep me grounded. I’m so, so blessed to have the opportunity to play for Australia.”
Such faith, Labuschagne believes, provides a broader perspective on the despair and delirium of Ashes cricket.
“It’s hard to explain sometimes to people how much it means, because you always look at it and people are like ‘it’s just a game’. But it’s not. It is more than that.”
And so, in the final moments of England’s run chase at Headingley in the third Test, Labuschagne took to seeking out help from a higher power.
“On the field the other day, you were praying for one of those [Ben] Stokes balls to go up and someone be under it,” he smiles. “You can hope and pray. Sometimes, it just doesn’t go your way.”