Marnus Labuschagne Not Out Of Form, Just Short Of Runs: Smith

Australia’s stand-in Test skipper Steve Smith came to the defence of his batting colleague Marnus Labuschagne and insisted that a big score is just around the corner for the right-handed No.3 batter.

Most Aussie batters feasted on runs in the 2-0 clean sweep over Sri Lanka but not Labuschagne, who averaged 25.00, by a distance the lowest among all the visiting top six batters. The lean series has now put Labuschagne’s spot in the Test side in real jeopardy ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final, particularly with Cameron Green slated to return as a specialist batter. 

However, Smith drew parallels to his own fortunes and backed Labuschagne to come to the party pretty soon.

“Marn’s similar to me in a way. Throughout the summer I think he’s actually batting quite nicely and there’s a difference between being out of form and out of runs, and I’ve seen Marnus do it, we know he can do it,” Smith said after the series, reported Fox Cricket.

“I don’t think he’s out of form personally. I’ve watched him train and watched him play and a lot of the things he’s done so well are there. Things can turn around pretty quickly. He’d love to score more runs and we’d love him to score more runs, but in my opinion it’s just around the corner.”

Smith went on to underline the role ‘luck’ plays in cricket and claimed that he would never have had the kind of series he had - 272 runs @ 136.00 with two hundreds - had he not been dropped by Prabath Jayasuriya early in his innings on the very first day of the tour.

“Things can turn around quickly, a bit of luck, first innings in the first Test here I got dropped on one and then went on to make it count. Another day, I get caught, and we’re not having the same conversation,” Smith said.

“As soon as you get that one good score, you get a bit of a read on some bowlers that you’re facing and you just feel a bit more comfortable. That for me was the Gabba I suppose, to get a big one there I started to feel comfortable, facing a lot of balls and getting a bit of rhythm.

“Other than that I can’t really put it down to anything other than having faith in what I was doing in practice and trusting it and knowing the game ebbs and flows. You can have days where the luck’s not on your side, but then you have a bit of luck and then you’ve got to make the most of it.”

Smith has four tons in his last five Tests but Labuschagne is averaging just 31.54 across his last 25 Tests, with a solitary hundred to his name. 

With Beau Webster having had a flawless start to his Test career, Labuschagne could very well end up making way for Green come the WTC Final.