Marnus Labuschagne - unheralded, understated, and now immortal in Australia's World Cup history

Four months ago, Marnus Labuschagne would have perhaps been brooding over what had transpired in the English summer. He was a part of the Australian side that won the World Test Championship but had not contributed as heavily as he would have liked.

The Ashes series that followed produced middling returns too. He did score a century, but 328 runs across 10 innings came at an average of 32.8, which is a fair way below what he normally averages (53.36) in Test cricket. Then, in early August, he was dropped from the ODI squads to face India and South Africa.

At that point, Labuschagne was not scoring runs in the format he has been most successful in. His ODI career seemed to have nosedived even before it took off, and he was nowhere in the T20I frame. He was not quite down in the dumps, and his career was not entirely on the line. But for a batter of his calibre, it did seem like a trough he, or many watching him, would not have envisaged

That, though, is the beauty of sport and time. Some months are bad. Some are better, and some feel like a proper fairy tale. On occasions, these ebbs and flows work in your favour. At times, not quite. Whichever way you look at it, one thing that remains constant is that time and sport change.

It did for Labuschagne. In the only fashion it could have (more on that later). And it sort of dovetailed with the turning around of Australia’s fortunes. Perhaps shedding light on why they stuck by him, and always felt that he would, when others would fail, do the lesser-glamorous, more tedious job, and still come through unscathed.

Since the start of September 2023, Labuschagne has played 19 ODIs, with all of them coming in succession. He has batted 18 times, managing 783 runs at an average of just under 50 (48.93). Those runs have come at a strike rate of 83.03, which in the current climate of cricket, does not feel enough.

These numbers, though, need to be viewed in context. Labuschagne was, if that is a term at all, an umbrella man. Whenever it felt it would rain, his job was to shield the more illustrious, more destructive players around him.

At times, he would get drenched himself, but that would mean the others would remain dry, and bend the game to Australia’s liking.

Marnus Labuschagne kept India at bay in the World Cup final

In the final against India, that became amply clear. Even while Travis Head rattled along at more than run-a-ball, Labuschagne was unperturbed. Not drawn into the appeal of matching his partner stroke for stroke. He knew his job was to stretch the partnership as long as possible and frustrate India to such a degree that they went searching for wickets.

The other telling moment from his innings on Sunday was when Australia were three down in nine overs. Jasprit Bumrah had bowled another superb over and had forced Labuschagne to be at the top of his defensive game.

At the change of overs, Virat Kohli, often the first to wind up an opposition player, gave Australia’s No. 5 a proper stare-down. The kind where the eyes do not flinch and the other person is told they are in a fight – a fight they perhaps have lesser chances of winning.

Labuschagne, usually chirpy himself, just absorbed it. He knew that was not part of his brief. Getting Kohli and India riled up, in front of more than a hundred thousand fans, was the last thing Australia would have wanted. So, he just let it pass by as if nothing had happened and let his bat do the talking, which whilst cliche, is certainly the best way to respond.

It was also very revealing that moments after the game had finished, the right-handed middle-order batter was at a loss for words. One thing that came through lucidly was him being grateful for the number of games he played. Since the start of that ODI series against South Africa, and now culminating in the greatest of crescendos.

Had injuries not played a part, Labuschagne might have watched the World Cup from home. In front of a television set. Rather than living it in front of the greatest crowd this sport has seen all these years.

That is the beauty of sport and time, though. It changes.

Labuschagne, in many ways, was an accidental Test No. 3 for Australia too – someone they stumbled upon, having handed him his debut as a middle-order batter who could bowl leg-spin in the Middle East. He filled in as a concussion replacement for Steve Smith and has not looked back since the 2019 Ashes series.

So, it is poetic that his biggest ODI break also came as a concussion replacement. Labuschagne, it must be noted, was a replacement player himself in the squad, post Smith’s withdrawal. In the first ODI, Cameron Green was hit on the head and had to be substituted, allowing Labuschagne to win that game for Australia, almost single-handedly.

He then followed it up with a hundred in the second ODI, and his World Cup dream was realised after Ashton Agar could not recover sufficiently enough from his injury.

Australia, for further context, left a possible front-line spinner out and replaced him with a middle-order batter, very similar in style to Smith, and someone who could not bowl as many overs as Agar might have, had he been fit.

This sequence - some may call it luck, but what Labuschagne has done when being accorded those chances is not luck. If you are still hung up on calling this luck, then he has made every bit of this luck. Through hard work, skill, and sheer clarity, the Australian team management must also be credited with this.

He was never in the side to take Australia from 350 to 400 on flat decks. He was not there to hit as many muscular sixes as Marcus Stoinis or to genuinely break open a game with a bowling moment of magic like Green.

He was there for when Australia would lose their way, and would just need someone to shut off everything, concentrate on the next ball and not get out. That it came, when the World Cup was at stake, only reiterates what clever and methodical planning can do, both from a team’s perspective and for an individual.

Labuschagne might have arrived unheralded, understated and perhaps a little underappreciated too. But now, he is immortal. Immortal in Australia’s rich World Cup history.

Whenever they talk about 2023, Adam Zampa, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Head, of course, will be front and centre. Labuschagne, though, was there. Not quite thrusting himself into the limelight, but doing what was needed. And most times, doing what is needed, even if it is the lesser glamourous gig, is what wins World Cups.