The Marnus v Marcus selection conundrum

ICC MEN’S ODI WORLD CUP, 2023

Besides the usual, Labuschagne has been spotted bowling spin and keeping in the nets ahead of the semifinal. ©AFP

Marnus Labuschagne had been fiddling with the pair of wicket-keeping gloves for around 15 minutes by then already. He’d finished one of his customarily lengthy hits in the nets before being joined by chief selector George Bailey for a chat. It went for a good 15 minutes too. Labuschagne was on his feet soon after, looking for the gloves and putting them on. His next task was to find a cricket ball from inside his kit bag. Once done, he began lobbing the ball up in the air and catching it repeatedly like a schoolkid who wasn’t ready for recess to end yet.

What he was doing though was waiting for one of the two nets on the side square at the Eden Gardens to get freed up. For, Labuschagne wanted to give himself some extra wicket-keeping practice, or at least try his hand at it anyway. With Steve Smith deeply indulged in one of his ‘I’ll be done when I feel like’ nets sessions, his fellow batting tragic was aware that he had to wait for the one adjacent to be emptied. And as soon as he saw it happen, Labuschagne was in there, now donning a helmet, having convinced one of the net bowlers to bowl some off-breaks, while he stood behind the stumps.

After missing the first delivery, he made amends by collecting the ball and pulling off two virtual stumpings with quite impressive agility. But that was it. Cameron Green had decided to have an additional hit, and Labuschagne the reserve-wicket-keeper-in-the-making had no choice but to vacate the premises. He instead stood at the back, chatting about the skill of wicket-keeping with Andy Flower and Alex Carey. Watching on from the stands at Eden Gardens above the clubhouse, you couldn’t help but wonder if Labuschagne was just being his restless self or if he was trying to send a message to Bailey and the selectors. Not that anyone within the Australian camp is buying into Labuschagne’s sudden new-found interest in standing behind the stumps. Even if he has been seen attempting it before play during the last two league matches as well.

“He won’t be keeping wickets. We’ve got two very accomplished wicket keepers here on tour,” Pat Cummins said with great certainty when asked about his middle-order batter’s new-found affinity to the wicket-keeping gloves.

“Now, I did say to him after training yesterday, because I saw him bowl off spin, leg spin, do short fielding catching, outfield catching, and then batting in the nets against spin, pacers. I was like what have we, you forgot to do bowling, fast bowling today, what’s happened? So, he’ll probably be down here later bowing, fast bowing,” added Cummins.

As it turned out, Labuschagne didn’t show up for training on the eve of the World Cup semifinal in Kolkata. He wasn’t the only one to take a break from the optional session. In fact, Travis Head was the sole member of the Australian team to make it to the ground for a hit. And though Labuschagne the wicket-keeper will not feature in the second knockout game of this tournament, the question remains whether we will see Labuschagne the batter sprinting out to bat like he does in the middle-order. For once, Australia are expected to have all 15 men in their squad fit for selection, a luxury they’ve not had at any stage during this tournament. This, despite, some late drama on Tuesday (November 14), with Glenn Maxwell being spotted at a local hospital for some precautionary scans on his hamstring.

With Maxwell returning to the side, after having missed out against Bangladesh following his miracle knock in Mumbai, the only real question that needs answered from a selectorial sense is who he replaces in the playing XI. And it seems pretty obvious that it’ll come down to them picking between Labuschagne and Marcus Stoinis, with the rest of the team quite settled. While David Warner, Mitch Marsh and Maxwell each have scored two centuries in the tournament already, Travis Head started off his campaign with a bang against New Zealand with a whirlwind hundred. Steve Smith, meanwhile, has been building up towards a big score, having gone past 60 on two occasions, while Josh Inglis is the only one without a consistent run with the bat, averaging 18.71 in 7 innings. No wonder Labuschagne, who has averaged 35.75 at a strike-rate of 77.08, was giving the wicket-keeping gloves a go just in case someone noticed him standing up to the stumps to Cam Green, like he did in Pune last week.

Cummins as always wasn’t dropping any hints when he was asked about the conundrum on Wednesday (November 15).

“With the all-rounders, someone like a – say Stoin (Marcus Stones) at number seven, that’s giving you valuable overs, but then also is a really aggressive finisher to the innings so you’re weighing that up against you know maybe a middle order batter if you think the bowling might not come into it as much and maybe the runs are to be had through the middle overs rather than blasting out at the end. So, they’re things we’ve got to weigh up. I don’t think there’s a wrong or right answer. We’ve got a class squad of people here that feel like we can step in at any time so yeah, we’ll work through that,” he said.

The factor that will have a final say on that call will be how the Aussies feel the surface at Eden Gardens, which has been used recently, for the England versus Pakistan match on Saturday (November 11), will play.

Early indications are of it being dusty and dry. Around four of the senior Australian players, including Cummins, Warner and Smith were in the middle at one point on Tuesday evening, inspecting the pitch. And Smith could be seen having a chat with one of the groundstaff. Not a lot of actual words seemed to be spoken between the two, with the dialogue mainly being conducted through hand movements and facial expressions. While the groundstaff looked to have suggested that they should expect a 300+ total on the pitch, Smith nodded his head and with his fingers seemed to insist that it’ll be closer to 250. He then indicated before leaving that the ball will turn off this surface.

As it turned out, Australia did face an abundance of left-arm spin in the nets on both days since landing in Kolkata. Even Daniel Vettori, who as assistant coach mainly sticks to wanging balls at the batters, was seen rolling his arm over, probably to prepare the Aussies for their challenge against Keshav Maharaj, who’s quietly had a very strong World Cup.

Interestingly enough, Kagiso Rabada and Tambraiz Shamsi would inspect the pitch too at point, with the big fast bowler suggesting to his teammate that there would be a lot of turn on offer for him. Bavuma was of the opinion, insisting during his press conference that he’d like to go in with two spinners. And it looks rather likely that he will get his way. Unlike Smith though, Bavuma ended up having a breezy chat with a security guy who he mistook for being part of the ground-staff about the pitch, before realising halfway through their chat about pitch conditions. On Wednesday, Bavuma was back, this time spending a lot of time in the middle, shadow-batting and getting his eyes set for Kolkata.

While Labuschagne did everything there was to do like Cummins said, Stoinis was a busy man too on both training days at the Eden Gardens. He bowled a long spell alongside Mitchell Starc on Monday night before stepping in for an aggressive session with the bat on Tuesday. He’s yet to light the tournament alight with the bat but has threatened to do so here and there. It’s unlikely that numbers will come into the question, or play a big part, in deciding which one of the two does get the nod. While Labuschagne’s ability to work the spinners around while employing the occasional shot in anger could well be handy if the pitch is a slow turner, Stoinis has shown in recent times that he’s a confident striker of the ball against spin. And then there’s his bowling, which could be a bonus against a high-profile and hard-hitting South African batting line-up.

Cummins is right though when he says there are no “right or wrong” answers. If anything that’ll be determined retrospectively based on how whichever one of Labuschagne or Stoinis gets picked ends up performing in the big match. Even if Labuschagne will have to be content with playing purely as a batter, however keen he might be at the moment to be the last-minute reserve keeper.

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