The Ashes: Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne is so impressive even with luck on his side

The problem for England is that Chappell, the former Australia captain, uttered these words in January of this year after Australia’s fourth Test against India, and Labuschagne’s luck is showing no sign of running out just yet.

He had oodles of the stuff in his first-innings 103 in Adelaide - his first Ashes century - being dropped three times and caught behind off a no-ball, and his second-innings 51 was not without its fortune too. But on he goes, cashing in on the opportunities granted to him, just as all the very best players do, and churning out the runs, to the extent that he has now gone above Joe Root as the No 1-ranked Test batsman in the world.

His numbers are quite astonishing. His Test average of 62.14 is second only to the great Sir Donald Bradman’s iconic 99.94 and is above that of his close friend and fellow fidgeter at the crease, Steve Smith (61.20). Sandwiched between them, and this is still rather odd to relate, is another Australian, Adam Voges, who averaged 61.87 in his 20 Tests.

Labuschagne has now reached that tally of 20 Tests too, a surprisingly small number given that he is 27, and there was a statistic doing the rounds during the Adelaide Test emphasising that he has made more scores over 50 at this stage of his career (18) than Bradman had (15). It is true, but the difference is that Bradman was averaging 111.92 at this point, with 13 centuries (including five double-centuries — one of them being 299 not out — and a triple century) compared to Labuschagne’s six (including one double).

What is Bradman-esque is Labuschagne’s record in the first innings of Tests. Only four times has he scored fewer than 47 and they all came in his first five Test innings. Since returning to the Test side as a concussion substitute in the 2019 Ashes he averages a stunning 102 in first innings.

As a former Glamorgan player I may be a little biased on this, but it is no exaggeration to say that none of this might have happened had Labuschagne not gone to the Welsh county in 2019 and scored a hatful of runs after some perceptive technical counsel from head coach Matthew Maynard, who advised him to alter his stance slightly, opening up his front foot a little while ensuring his back foot stayed parallel to the crease, thus ensuring that his bat path was much straighter.

Maynard still keeps a close eye on Labuschagne and when I suggested to him during the Adelaide Test that maybe Labuschagne’s front foot was too opened up now, he replied that he thought the Australian was in very good order and setting himself up well.

Last summer I interviewed Labuschagne at Glamorgan and it was in the middle of a rough trot for him — maybe that was the period Chappell was thinking of — with Kent’s Darren Stevens having dismissed him twice and Lancashire’s James Anderson having snared him cheaply too.

Of his duel with Anderson, he said quite memorably: “He obviously got the chocolates that day but I’m looking forward to our challenge in the Australian summer.”

Well, it was certainly Labuschagne who got the chocolates in Adelaide, and indeed the man-of-the-match award, as he drove England to distraction with the lucidity of his decision-making — he has never left as many balls as he did in that Test — and the sharpness of his strokeplay when the bad balls came, as well, of course, as his personal commentary on events. “No run!” he would exclaim after most leaves and then when he left the ball after being reprieved by the no-ball, he said: “Yes, Marn, better.”

It was no different when I watched him net last summer. “That’s you, Marn,” he shouted after many good shots. That is just his personality. Excitement oozes from his every pore and there is nothing more exciting for him than being on a cricket field, especially with bat in hand.

He simply loves batting. He played for Glamorgan second XI last summer against Northamptonshire at Newport and made 276. He was 113 not out at the end of the first day, after the opposition had been bowled out cheaply, and there was some surprise when he was a little late arriving at the ground the next morning. It transpired that he had been at Sophia Gardens on the bowling machine for an hour or two before resuming his innings.

His appetite for hitting cricket balls is insatiable, but so is his desire for improvement. He changed his grip slightly earlier this year, moving his bottom hand from under the handle to more on top of it, because he felt that his on-side game was suffering.

The benefits of that were obvious in Adelaide, as he hit sweetly through the leg side. What stood out most, though, was his patience. Ben Stokes did ruffle him a little with his short stuff in the first innings, but generally he was unflustered. He even took 36 balls to make his first two runs in the second innings when Australia were miles ahead in the game.

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“I’m surprised,” Alastair Cook said on BT Sport. But England were bowling better than at any other time in the match and Labuschagne was just biding his time. When Ollie Robinson strayed too straight on consecutive balls he clipped both away for four. Even when Chris Woakes beat him three times in an over, he still hit the last ball of that over to the boundary. His temperament is exceptional.

England will sincerely hope that Chappell is right and that Labuschagne’s luck runs out soon (and it should be noted that he has only played five Tests outside of Australia, in the United Arab Emirates and England, so sterner examinations await in places like India). But the alternative scenario is that Labuschagne continues his inexorable march to becoming a true great of the game — and he has not yet even reached his prime years, which usually come around 30.

-The Times