Marnus makes ‘greedy’ admission after ‘longest break’
Marnus Labuschagne admits he became “greedy” in his desperate search for runs, but believes an extended break could bring the end a lengthy drought at Test level.
The right-hander hasn’t scored a century for Australia in his past 22 Tests, with the last time he reached triple-figures coming during the 2023 Ashes campaign.
Marnus Labuschagne. Getty
Labuschagne will likely be selected for the first match against Bangladesh next week, but there is mounting pressure on him to keep his spot - especially with the Aussies about to begin a rigorous 12-month schedule.
Speaking to media from the team’s training camp in Brisbane, the 32-year-old said the time away has allowed him to work on parts of his game that would usually fall by the wayside in between Australian and domestic commitments.
“Sitting here now after eight weeks, being able to go back to my fundamentals and spending hours and hours on my game and the simple things,” he said.
“It’s something that I definitely needed, when you’re on the road playing for the last seven or eight years straight - this is the longest break I’ve had.
“It’s hard to find long-term solutions in such a short time frame when you’ve only got three weeks between tours and things like that,” Labuschagne said.
“When you’ve missed out a few times, you get a little greedy and start searching for runs instead of letting the game come to you.
“There’s been times where I’ve tried to get things in order, but I just run out of time to fully commit to those small changes and you revert back to what you’ve been doing. You never get off that cycle until you have a little gap, so it’s been really nice to go back and find my best form and what it looks like for me.
“The preparation for the past five weeks here with Australia has been great for that and hopefully we can see the results off the back of all the hard work.”
While he still averages in the mid-40s for Australia, it’s been a tough trot for the Queenslander, who at one stage was ranked as the world’s best batter.
Labuschagne was named in Australia’s full-strength 15-man squad for the two-game series against Bangladesh, which begins next Thursday in Darwin.
He is expected to retain his No.3 spot for the first Test.
