Marnus Labuschagne

Belnakor

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Still way too early for that kind of call. Marnus still has a lot of games overseas to be played to come close to proving himself with Smith.
Smiths last series in India was one of the greatest ever played by a visiting batsman. If marnus even gets close to that he’ll be doing very very well.
 
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Highest first innings averages of all time, minimum 1000 runs - https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/e...0;qualval1=runs;template=results;type=batting

Labu sits #2 at 83.

Bradman 99, Voges 82, Smith 75, Weekes 71 round out the top five.

Given Australia's batting woes over the last decade, it's hilarious of batsmen to have scored 1000+ runs in test cricket, #3 (Labu 62), #4 (Voges 61) and #5 (Smith 61) on the averages are Australian batsmen of the last decade. If that holds people in future generations will think we had some sort of wonder period with the bat - a good lesson to always dig a bit below the surface of overall career records.

Voges beating the crap out of the West Indies is going to be a pain in the ass for cricket historians about 50 years from now.



we really should be filtering stats from a qualification of 25 or 30 tests ;)
 
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Love Marnus great start to his test career. Has rode his luck a lot thus far also though, apparently been caught 12 times and dropped 12 times so far in his career.

can't argue his great start to his test career.

luck is sometimes part of the game and i'm sure he'll encounter his share of bad luck.

very solid FC ave of 47.

1 duck so far - that was a 2 ball duck in his first test innings batting at number 6 behind mitch marsh !
 

Themanbun

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I've never seen such a quality batsman be so disrespected by the ex-players in the media.

Guessing because he doesn't fit the 'Aussie bloke', ala Michael Clarke. Except in this case Marnus seems like a quality guy.

Can't believe Roy is still commentating after what he said.
 

Caesar

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I've never seen such a quality batsman be so disrespected by the ex-players in the media.

Guessing because he doesn't fit the 'Aussie bloke', ala Michael Clarke. Except in this case Marnus seems like a quality guy.
I would wager it is because he is a bible thumper

Can’t think of any other reason why he hasn’t been in leadership discussions
 
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I've never seen such a quality batsman be so disrespected by the ex-players in the media.

Guessing because he doesn't fit the 'Aussie bloke', ala Michael Clarke. Except in this case Marnus seems like a quality guy.
Was it Graham Swan calling him a junior psychopath or something during the tea break? Tongue in cheek and all, but you do get a sense he isn't taken very seriously, apart from his batting.
 

eltrain

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I would wager it is because he is a bible thumper

Can’t think of any other reason why he hasn’t been in leadership discussions

Nothing to do with his religious views at all. There’s likely to be plenty of guys of faith in and around the Aussie cricket setup, not least the coach who is pretty devout.

Hes a fantastic batsman with an infectious obsession for the game who seems like a good bloke. However, and it’s a big however, he plays up the annoying little brother persona which winds a lot of people up. I personally think it’s funny, but it’s probably why there’s an assumption that his maturity level isn’t up to captaincy standards at the moment, but could well be in future.
 

Blue1980

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I love Marnus but feel like if he has a bad run of luck it could go downhill for him quickly. Seems to bat with a lot of luck. Great player though

He’s had some fortune v India last year and this innings in Adelaide, but he is a gun.

He may have a trough at some point, but he is averaging over 60.
 
Is anyone this century comporable?
That's just plain ridiculous
I don't have Bradman's numbers in front of me, but I'm not sure even the great man himself had a sustained run of first innings numbers like Marnus has. It's phenomenonal, and I'm bloody glad he's on our side, because I'm sure opposition teams and their fans are sick of the sight of him.
 

Blue1980

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Smiths last series in India was one of the greatest ever played by a visiting batsman. If marnus even gets close to that he’ll be doing very very well.

Yep Smith doing that in India and then his 2019 series in England elevates him higher than any aus batsmen I’ve seen.

Had a so so time of things in SA with sandpaper gate but had a good series in 2014 over there.

As I said in an earlier post both Pakistan and India coming up in 2022 for Marnus will be a good test.
 

Themanbun

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You'd think that Labu would be one of the last people that Hayden would slag off.

They're both religious QLD batsmen.

But then again, Hayden is a known belligerent.
All the w***ers from that era hate Marnus I've noticed, or at least don't have the professionalism to not voice it. Ponting and Hussey, the most boring personalities of the lot seem to embrace him.
 

DaRick

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Hayden's a Catholic, Marnus is probably some variation of the NGK, those twains would be unlikely to meet.

Normally I'd agree, but the fervour with which Hayden pushes his faith makes him look more like a closet Pentecostal than a typical Catholic (who tends to be more easygoing about such matters).

Labu is obviously an Afrikaner, and those types tend to be evangelicals, or at the very least devout Protestants, so I reckon that with regards to faith, Hayden and Labu have more in common than you'd think.

Upon reflection, maybe Hayden's apparent antipathy towards Labu comes from a personality clash - Labu comes across as friendly, eager to impress and almost child-like in his enthusiasm, whereas Hayden comes across as driven but also aggressive, stiff, humourless, narrow-minded and overly obsessed with propriety. The two don't seem to go together well.

Brad Hogg had a similar type of personality to Marnus, and Hayden similarly didn't care for him at all. In fact, he outright called Hogg a dickhead (or something like that) in a team meeting.
 
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That amazing early/mid 2000s team is one of our best ever assembled but holy sh*t they are some of the worst personalities going around.
Mike Hussey, it's amazing he got along with anyone in that dressing room.
Cricket is quite an individual sport really and as such egos tend to be rather significant. Many players are rather self focused, even selfish. Stories of young players having their equipment thrown out of the change room. Bowling and throwing down to senior players for hours on end in the nets. Fetch me this, fetch me that.

I think it's a bit different in footy. Players have to gel and get along on and off the field. They have to pass the ball to the guy in the best position, sacrifice their game and themselves physically (when required) for each other.
 
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