Australia’s players look like they have escaped the axe after their dreadful shellacking in the first Test at Perth Stadium, but the bloke who handed Marnus Labuschagne the paintbrush to mark out his run-up should be in serious strife.
Has there ever been a greater sign of chaos in Australian cricket than Labuschagne being given free reign to think he is a fast bowler?
I used to think that Australia was raising the white flag when they threw the ball to Nathan Hauritz, lovely guy that he is, to bowl spin in a Test match, only to be outbowled by Michael Clarke.
Surely planes approaching Perth airport should have been warned about the height of Australia’s white flag when Marnus was clumping in to bowl his long hops.
There were unsubstantiated rumours that ball boys and girls in orange vests were stationed along the Swan River with nets in case the ball disappeared out of the stadium and threatened to get a serious dunking.
Thankfully India’s stand-in captain, Jasprit Bumrah, declared just shy of 500 before any of the native bird life suffered serious injury.
The mist that descended over Team Australia as India romped to a 295-run victory inside four days appears to have cleared.
The selectors have chosen a genuine all-rounder, Beau Webster, in an extended squad, for the second Test under lights in Adelaide, beginning next Friday. This should be confirmation of an immediate ban on Marnus ever trying to imitate Max Walker on a Test field again.
While Webster has been included as cover for a sore Mitch Marsh, they should both play if Marsh is fit to bat so Australia’s extra seamer’s skill set extends beyond the long hop. Given Labuschagne’s muddled mind and technique at the moment he should be the player who makes way.
Marnus Labuschagne walks off the field after being dismissed by Mohammed Siraj at Perth Stadium. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Marsh hasn’t really been fit to bowl for Australia since his previous recall, for the last Test of the 2019 Ashes when he took seven wickets in a losing side at The Oval and scored 17 and 24.
Much has changed in those five years. Marsh is now Australia’s most reliable batter but his bowling is going the way of another powerful player from a recent era, Shane Watson. The bits that hold their hulking bodies together keep fraying, highlighting how hard it is to be a genuine all-rounder in the modern game.
Marsh was forced to bowl 12 overs during India’s second innings as their batters went on a rampage, more than he has delivered in an innings since that Oval Test five years ago.
During his final spell Marsh was delivering balls about as fast as Shane Warne’s flipper and he conceded 65 runs from those 72 balls, an “economy” rate almost as bad as Labuschagne’s.
But if Marsh can get up and down a 20-metre pitch in reasonable shape with a bat in his hand then that should warrant his inclusion.
Since his latest return to Test cricket, during the third Ashes Test at Headingley last year, Marsh has been Australia’s standout runscorer. Across 11 Tests he’s scored 803 runs at 44.61.
Australia’s batting during that period has been of real concern. Usman Khawaja has 655 runs at 31.19. No one else has managed 600 runs. Smith is averaging 31, Travis Head 29, Labuschagne 28 and Alex Carey 27.
The irony of course is that David Warner, the target of a forever public campaign to get him out of the team, averaged 37 in that period before retiring from Test cricket. Cameron Green averaged 46 before being ruled out this season with a back injury that required surgery.
After the Adelaide Test against the West Indies almost two years ago Labuschagne was averaging 61 with 10 centuries from 30 Tests. He was regularly ranked the number one batter in the world. Now, after 51 Tests, he’s averaging 48 with 11 centuries.
If, as many former players say, Test cricket is 90 percent mental, then Marnus clearly has some rearranging to do with his thinking. Or perhaps he should take the advice of former VFL godfather John Kennedy, who as coach famously exhorted his Hawthorn players during a losing grand final against North Melbourne, “don’t think, do!”
The first thing Marnus, 30, should do is stop thinking about bowling. That’s not his job.
The second thing he should do is stop thinking about players he wants to emulate. He went into this series saying he wanted to bat like India’s recent rock Cheteshwar Pujara. As a result Marnus became a sitting duck in Perth trying not to score until he got out.
We just want the old Marnus back. The one who became Test cricket’s first concussion sub and showed such intent that he sprung back up like the Energiser Bunny when Jofra Archer felled him with a bouncer from his second ball in that Test.
That’s if he gets a game in Adelaide ahead of a real all-rounder.