The Marnus watch at Newlands
Labuschagne's net session two days before the decider gave away plenty, though nobody’s quite sure what
On Sunday morning, Marnus Labuschagne walked out to the middle of Newlands with Josh Inglis in tow. Inglis was already padded up ready to go while Australia’s incumbent No. 3 dragged his kit along having a chat. The fit-again Western Australian right-hander walked straight into the net to face Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins. Labuschagne, meanwhile, grabbed a red-white two-piece ball and began bowling some leg-spin to Inglis and Cameron Green. It was more him going through the motions, mainly impersonating the late Shane Warne’s action.
This wasn’t the usual Marnus, all peppy and trying to get the better of the two batters, who were soon joined by Beau Webster on the centre-wicket. But there was little that seemed customary about the 32-year-old’s time at Newlands two days out from the third Test in Cape Town. It wasn’t so much the slight change in the order in which he went about his session. It was more the way he looked while he was out there.
Labuschagne must have bowled fewer than a dozen deliveries before he walked off to join Steve Smith, who batted for only around 15 minutes in the nets at the back, and head coach Andrew McDonald. It was an animated chat, as you’d expect with Smith and Labuschagne involved, and at one point, the senior partner put a comforting arm around his fellow batting buff. The rather conspicuous discussion between the three went on for a good 20 minutes before Labuschagne finally walked over to put on his pads to face Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland. By which time, Green, Inglis and Beau Webster had used up the bulk of the batting session facing the captain and Australia’s new ball supremo.
There were enough cues in there to suggest that Labuschagne might have been informed about being left out of the decider that starts on Tuesday. There were, however, also enough hints to suggest that he was just doing things differently this time around, or maybe even that he might be preparing for a slightly different role in the top order.
The fact is that this was a day to speculate. As is the case when a team goes down comprehensively, and that too by an innings, like Australia did in Gqeberha. There are of course a bunch of different selection scenarios that the visitors will be forced to consider. Owing to some of their batters struggling to get the runs expected of them but also due to the return to fitness for Green and Inglis. That meant that Sunday was all about spotting and analysing even the slightest of divergences in how Australia, with extra focus on certain players, went about their main training session at Newlands.
Coming back to Labuschagne, it’s safe to say it was one of the more underwhelming nets sessions of the tour. There were three occasions on which he was nicked off by the seamers he faced, once each by Hazlewood, Boland and Webster. But in contrast to his usual reactions to ‘getting out’ in the nets, where you’d see him protest or at least question whether the ball ‘would have carried to the slips’, he simply stood there unhappy with himself for having made the error. There were times he looked to have his game in order but there was definitely a lack of energy in his body language as he batted on. It was also one of the rare occasions where he didn’t feel the need to face throwdowns from Michael Di Venuto in the nets, instead facing James Franklin and Matthew Wade with their wangers. There were moments where Labuschagne looked as he had in the early stages of the Test tour of the Caribbean last year, when he was left out of the XI for the entire series.
But to categorically link any of this to him having been dropped would be unfair. Maybe it was just a case of a top-order batter, who’s been under fire for nearly a couple of years, finally letting the pressure show on him. Maybe it was a case of him being given a final ultimatum.
There was further intrigue around a few other players who did look more at peace with the world on Sunday. Green looked at his sharpest in the nets, just like he had a day earlier, against a mixture of Franklin giving throwdowns and Michael Neser running in with the new ball. It was interesting to see him bat for quite a while against the new ball, furthering suggestions that he might come back into the team at No 3, where he’d batted in the West Indies last year as a specialist batter. What that could then mean for Labuschagne remains to be seen considering Matt Renshaw faced the same combination of operators with the new ball for quite a while. Renshaw and Travis Head weren’t present for training on Sunday, having taken the day off.
All four fast bowlers, by the way, ran in and bowled at full tilt in pairs. Nathan Lyon wheeled away for a long spell too before doing laps around the ground with Starc. With the grass cover on the Newlands surface continuing to reduce with each day as we get closer to the start of the third Test, there’s every chance Lyon comes right back into the mix even if it remains unclear as to which of the fast bowlers he might replace.
But like every other speculation thrown around on Sunday, there are no prizes for not guessing about what combination Australia finally land up on.
