The new Wisden Cricketer of the Year speaks to Taha Hashim
Before he conquered his home patch, Marnus Labuschagne, now a Wisden Cricketer of the Year, found his groove in England and Wales. He speaks to Taha Hashim about his extraordinary summer last year with Glamorgan and Australia.
The first item on this summer’s agenda should have been an evening at the Wisden dinner. “My county stint wasn’t going to start till the 19th, but I was gonna make my way over earlier. It’s such a special moment. If it was possible to get over there for the award I would have done anything not to miss it.” Were it not for the coronavirus pandemic, Marnus Labuschagne would have been nearing his return to Glamorgan for a second consecutive summer, but this time with a little less to prove. This time, as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. It’s been some rise.
Labuschagne was No.96 in the Test batting rankings when Glamorgan announced his signing a year ago as cover for his compatriot Shaun Marsh, who was off to the World Cup. “It was something I’d always wanted to do,”says the 25-year-old. “I’d always wanted to play county cricket. I didn’t have the greatest finish to the summer in Australia, so it was an opportunity for me to push my case to get myself in Ashes contention.”
With just four first-class centuriesand an underwhelming Test average of 26.25, what followed belied his track record. In 10 Championship matches, five fifties and five hundreds helped Labuschagne to 1,114 runs at an average of 65.52. County cricket, seen as the finishing school for Australian batsmen, had delivered another graduate.
What is their relationship at the crease like? “Early in the innings there’s not too much talk at all. He’s more just about relaxing and I just try and accommodate where I can. When we sort of get going then we talk about what the bowlers are trying to do and how we can combat that. Our strengths are quite similar – we both like hitting the ball on the leg side, we both cover the stumps – so we can bounce off each other a fair bit about how to go about the game.” Labuschagne shares Smith’s affinity for superstition too. “I hate it when the bail on the off side hangs over the edge of the stump. I always make sure I tuck that in.”
In the second innings, Labuschagne finally failed to reach fifty in the series, but it mattered little as Australia retained the urn in England for the first time in 18 years. “The celebrations after, that’s something I’ll never forget. To come back from Headingley, with everyone writing us off, to go to Old Trafford and win there was something pretty special.”
The less said about The Oval, the better. To win the Ashes outright is now one for the bucket list. Labuschagne’s been ticking things off pretty quickly, too. A first Test hundred arrived during the Australian summer against Pakistan, and he added three more over the four subsequent Tests.That average is now looking very pretty at 63.43, higher than a certain teammate of his.He now sits behind just Smith and Virat Kohli in the Test batting rankings.
Yet for all the glory at home, it was the British summer that revealed the makings of Australia’s latest batting star. “I really enjoyed that clarity of just being able to play cricket and not think of much else.I’ve got more family here [in Australia], I’ve got jobs to do around the house, so there are a few more responsibilities. I think I really enjoyed that almost cricket isolation in Wales, and then in England.”
