MATCH STORIES
Follow UsThere was a time about 12-15 years ago when Kevin Pietersen simply was unable to stop himself from getting out to left-arm spin.
Between 2008 and 2011, in ODI cricket, KP had 10 dismissals against left-arm spin at an average of 21.7. During this period, he was dismissed by left-arm spin every 30 balls.
Daniel Vettori, Abdur Razzak, Yuvraj Singh, Pieter Seelaar, Robin Peterson — it didn’t matter who bowled. As soon as left-arm spin was introduced, Pietersen would get out.
It’s 2024 and you get the same vibes from Marnus Labuschagne.
It does not matter who bowls. It does not matter at what pace the ball is bowled. Keep the ball outside off-stump and Labuschagne will get out.
Since the start of 2023, Labuschagne has been dismissed 16 times by pacers. Dumbfoundingly enough, 13 of these 16 dismissals have come outside off-stump in the fourth/fifth/sixth stump line. He’s been getting out in identical fashion, tentatively prodding or poking at deliveries he should be letting go.
Labuschagne developed this bad habit during The Ashes, and it extended into the home summer. In the horror series against West Indies in which he averaged 6.33, the right-hander perished poking twice at the Gabba, where Australia eventually fell to an eight-run defeat.
However, things were supposed to be different in this series. Leading up to the first Test in Wellington, the Queenslander had intense training drills in which he specifically worked on ironing out his tendency to prod at the ball.
The sessions were so intense that Labuschagne was absolutely furious with himself when he nicked a ball on the fourth stump while batting in the nets.
“I was angry with the fact that I played at it. But also, I felt like I got rushed a little bit. I hadn't got my feet right in the trigger yet, and I just rushed through and played the ball anyway, and I felt like I wasn't clear. That annoyed me. That's been the kind of ball (that has troubled me),” he told Cricbuzz ahead of the Wellington Test, describing why he felt annoyed after nicking off in the nets.
But the 29-year-old said in the same interview that he was very confident that he could put the ‘nicking off’ dismissals behind him for good.
“I feel like over the last sort of month, I have worked on that. And working out how I'm going about playing that sort of delivery. And I've found that it's been a really good three weeks, playing the Shield game in Adelaide,” Labuschagne said.
“And a few different things that I've worked on from a technical space. It's worked really well. It's been really good. Like I said, that annoyed me yesterday in the nets. And hopefully that's the last we see of that.”
However, come the big occasion, the result turned out to be no different as Labuschagne, after a painful 40-minute toil, nicked off to Scott Kuggelejin after indecisively fishing at a ball on fifth stump.
The manner of the dismissal will no doubt bother both Australia and Labuschagne, but the bigger worry will be how tentative he looked out in the middle.
Sometimes you’re out of runs but not out of form. That is definitely not the case with Labuschagne, who is short of runs, short of form and desperately short of confidence.
Nothing underpinned the same more than the right-hander not even attempting to put away half-volleys. Both Kuggelejin and Tim Southee strayed too full to Labuschagne on multiple occasions but the 29-year-old either let the ball go or dead-batted it.
He eventually departed for 1 off 27 balls.
When a technical flaw turns into a mental block, it becomes all the more hard to solve it. At this point, it feels like Labuschagne is overthinking his batting, simply trying too hard not to get out nicking one.
