Marnus Labuschagne on his mannerisms, jersey number and county wickets

Not many can claim they know how it feels to be in Marnus Labuschagne’s shoes. Not because in a short Test career he has scored 6 hundreds and 13 fifties. That he is brilliant is not the primary reason. That he is different is. Different is a bit of an understatement, isn’t it?
‘NO RUN!’
Two words, five syllables and a whole lot of body movement. All of this with no effect on the scorecard, Marnus is a tireless entertainer. A personalised Labuschagne cam, and the broadcast economy shall never be in risk.

Marnus displaying all his variations of the ‘No Run!’ #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/gLQZjI50B7Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 18, 2020
In a latest newsletter, Beyond the Bat, the Australia international opened up to this part of his game and how being the most enthusiastic cricketer in every team he walks into has been like for him.
“Growing up, I never hid my love for the game, but I certainly felt that it wasn’t received as well as it is now”, he writes.
“I’ve always had a very supportive family and a group of friends that have encouraged me to be who I am and stay true to myself. But the best advice I can give is to be yourself and expect that not everyone will like it, but that’s just life.”
That last line is big, especially when it comes from someone who has received flak for being just himself on the camera.
In Early 2021, during the third Australia-India Test in Sydney, the late Shane Warne and the late Andrew Symonds were on the commentary team for Kayo Sports. Without realising their comments were being broadcasted the duo made comments on Labuschagne’s mannerisms terming them as annoying.
In a little video profile the Cricket Australia YouTube channel posted about him back in 2020, Labuschagne has talked about his side of things.

“People say I’m annoying but I think that’s because I’m interested in people. I love putting smiles on people’s faces.”
Learning how to deal with the public scrutiny and failure has been the biggest challenge that the 27-year old has faced as an international cricketer, as he mentions in his newsletter.
“It’s gotten easier with time – I’ve learnt to read the news differently and choose who to len to and what to block out entirely.”
One of the questions to Australia’s number 33 was why he had opted for that particular number when it came to his shirt. To which he responded saying that it wasn’t his first choice.

“Number 3 has always been my favourite because it was the number Jacques Kallis wore (he was my favourite player as a kid growing up).”
Since Jackson Bird had that number when Marnus debuted, the latter had to go with 33.
Labuschagne is currently in Wales for the Vitality Blast T20 with Glamorgan. Not too far away at the Lord’s Cricket Ground, England and New Zealand played a 17 wicket day one of Test cricket. Coincidentally the Australia international, who featured in the last Ashes in England and was also part of the recent county season, also shared his views on the wickets in England.
“The challenge of cricket in England horically has been the wickets”, he wrote.
“You can be very successful in county cricket as a slow to medium pace bowler. Whereas the international wickets are flatter, which means you need to bowl with more pace and skill as opposed to just letting the wicket do a lot of the work.”

Shaheen Afridi’s FIRST County Championship wicket…and it’s Marnus Labuschagne.pic.twitter.com/y9xP3RTFI0
— Aatif Nawaz (@AatifNawaz) April 21, 2022
The right-handed batter further elaborated sharing that he found batting on county tracks a ‘higher tempo’ affair and that the same wasn’t the case with international tracks where the batter could trust the wicket and its bounce.
He concluded on the topic sharing that in his opinion the closer county pitches can be made to resemble the test cricket ones around the world i.e. flatter and bouncier, the better it will be for the players.
Obviously, a sizeable part of the cricket community will have a word or two to say about that. But that shouldn’t worry Marnus Labuschagne, who’s just being himself.