Marnus Labuschagne’s lean patch continued in the second Bangladesh Test, and there’s more pressure than ever on his Test spot.
Labuschagne fell while trying to flick a Shoriful Islam delivery away, only for it to brush his thigh pads and hit the stumps. He now averages 24.7 since his last Test hundred, which came at Old Trafford during the 2023 Ashes - a run of 43 innings without a ton. Until then, he was averaging 56.2.
“I admire what they're trying to do with Marnus,” Ricky Ponting, on commentary duties, said on 7Cricket. “I admire that they've tried to get him back to his best, but it's been way too long now. And I'm on record saying that I would've made that change at the start of this series. Because there was enough evidence for me to suggest that he was a long way from rediscovering his best.”
While acknowledging that his dismissal in Mackay was more down to luck than a technical issue, Ponting pointed out that the three-year-long lean run was a by-product of just that. “I think there's some technical deficiency there,” he added, “and I think he's making the margin for error for the bowlers too big. With the length, he can't score off the back foot. If he can't score off the back foot in Test cricket, batting becomes a hard game.”
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The ability to score off both the front and back foot helps keep the batter’s scoring options open across different lengths. Front foot shots help to punish the fuller deliveries, while scoring off the back foot gives him access to the shorter balls, preventing the bowlers from settling into a comfortable length. If either option is taken away, the batter’s scoring opportunities are limited, thus, building pressure.
Now there’s merit to Ponting’s claims. From his debut in 2018 to the Old Trafford Test of the 2023 Ashes, Labuschagne’s numbers off the back foot were quite good – 1,580 runs at 60.8, and 100.3 deliveries per dismissal (26 in total). In comparison, off the front foot during the same period, he scored 1,849 runs at 59.6, with 104.7 deliveries per dismissal (31 in total). Not much to differentiate there.
But since then, he has scored only 440 runs at 20.0 off the back foot, falling 22 times in the process and taking only 37.6 balls per dismissal. While his front-foot numbers have also understandably taken a dip, they aren’t as bad as the other – 441 runs at 31.5, and 53.4 balls per dismissal (14 in total).
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“Three or four years ago, when he was averaging 65, 68 for a Test year, he was scoring off front foot and back foot,” Ponting continued. “I think the bowlers now know that they can run in and bowl anywhere from almost 10m to about 4m on off stump and out as wide as they want, and he can't hurt them. So I well and truly think it's time to have a look at somebody else.”
With a long summer ahead, that change may need to arrive sooner rather than later.
All data from Cricviz.
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