Team embraces ’strange’ Marnus

TIM Paine screamed at Marnus Labuschagne.

“Don’t be a sook”, the Aussie captain yelled.

For context, it was during a spirited game of touch football at the Derbyshire county cricket ground, in lieu of an actual training session, before this week’s tour match.

Labuschagne, who has shown himself to be anything but a sook after stepping in the gaping Ashes hole left by Steve Smith, was on the opposing side, and Paine was into him after a fumble.

Track watchers said it was par for the course, that Labuschagne often “cops it” from his teammates. “Marnus is a terrific player. Strange bloke, but terrific player,” his Queensland captain and now Test teammate Usman Khawaja said about an hour later.

Everyone has seen the terrific player in three truly hearty innings first at Lord’s, after a morning tap on the shoulder inserted him into the Ashes, and then two more at Headingley.

Labuschagne’s scores of 74 and then 80 were not only his team’s highest scores in the match, they were both more than England’s first innings total of 67.

When he’s not on the field, Labuschagne can readily be found diving through the kit bags of his teammates, analysing their bats with a forensic intent, always on the lookout for a better stick.

He’s got 10 with him in England, including one of his captain Paine, which he ripped off in Southampton.

He has one of England captain Joe Root’s old blades in his bag too, courtesy of Root’s brother, a teammate of Labuschagne at county side Glamorgan. “I love bats, I love the gear, I love talking bats, fine details, changes, handle shapes, how the bat taps, the length of the blade. I love it. I love talking about bats,” he said.

Labuschagne has soared in his three Ashes innings, he’s not run, not grown weary, nor been faint, not even in the face of several hits to his head, and his body. “Marnus is strange. He seems to like getting hit on the head,” Paine said.

There’s that word again, strange. Ordinary people, however rarely do extraordinary things.