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Marnus Labuschagne flew to Perth late on Saturday night after being handed an ODI call-up as a replacement for Cameron Green, but it is his place in Australia’s Ashes plan that is attracting the most attention.
Labuschagne made some interesting comments on Fox Cricket during a great chat with Kath Loughnan amid downpours that don’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.
Opener or No.3? If Australia is given the go-ahead, what will be its choice? (Mark Waugh believes himself to be “precise”).
Marnus Labuschagne started the summer as Australia’s most in-form batsman.Credit: Getty Images
“I will bat wherever the selectors and the coach put me,” he said. “I’ve been No. 3 for Australia my whole career, so yeah, there’s nothing more to say.”
Read whatever you like. It definitely doesn’t scream ‘I want to open’. Do a quick fact check there. Labuschagne has actually batted at every position from No. 1 to No. 7 in the Australian rankings.
But 89 of his 104 hits were at No. 3 (3956 runs at 48.83). He also opened in the World Test Championship final this year.
Labuschagne’s last six scores for Queensland (in both formats): 130, 2, 160, 105, 159 and 18.
“It’s always nice to get runs. I just wanted to play cricket the way I wanted and play with that freedom.”
“It was probably more mental. There’s a couple of technical things I sorted out. It was probably just trying to be too perfect rather than going too deep into my technique and playing with what I had.
“At the end of the day, you have to get out of your own mind and get back on the field and make runs. By this summer, runs were going to become the currency.
“That was probably the biggest focus, it doesn’t matter how you score or what it looks like, just find a way to score runs.
“This is probably a good reminder after you’ve struggled for a few years and it doesn’t matter how much running you do, when you haven’t been able to run for a while those doubts come.”
