Labuschagne stays sharp with superb backyard set-up

To the undoubted delight of many a backyard cricket wannabe, one of the game's foremost contemporary international players has resorted to using a tennis ball bound in insulating tape to hone his skills during the ongoing pandemic lockdown.

Australia Test hero Marnus Labuschagne, who this week was named alongside compatriots Pat Cummins and Ellyse Perry among Wisden Almanack's Players of the Year, has revealed he's returned to batting in recent days, albeit in vastly altered circumstances.

Instead of tackling well-grassed early season pitches for Glamorgan in the UK's county competition, where he was scheduled to be prior to COVID-19 shutting down sport worldwide, he's taking guard on a makeshift synthetic strip that runs through the garage of his Brisbane home.

And rather than combating a shiny, new Dukes ball as he did so effectively during last year's county stint and his breakthrough Ashes campaign that followed, his technique is being tested by a tennis ball in keeping with generations of backyard cricket battles fought throughout Australia.

As so many domestic bowling demons understand, the application of heavy tape to a tennis ball enables it to move through the air and invariably brings into play slips fielders who wait in anticipation behind the bat.

Or, in Labuschagne's case, a pet dog who showed his willingness to be involved in a video the Australia Test number three and third-ranked batter in the world provided for the Instagram account of his KFC Big Bash League outfit, Brisbane Heat.

While he would usually be facing a fearsome battery of fast bowlers in the practice nets, or endless throw-downs from men's team coaches Justin Langer and Graeme Hick, that role is being filled by a mate who is currently also isolating at the home where Labuschagne lives with wife, Rebekah.

"I have for the last couple of days, just because I've missed it," Labuschagne told Melbourne's SEN Radio today when asked when he had returned to batting after Australia's ODI series against New Zealand was called off last month.

"I'm lucky enough that I've actually got one of my best mates living with me at the moment.

"He's in isolation with me.

"So me and him are getting a few throw downs, and doing a bit of training.

"That's about as much cricket as I'm getting … a taped-up tennis ball in the backyard with a dog thrower.

"I'm playing a little bit of tennis, where it's allowed with the isolation rules to get my fitness in.

"And I'm doing gym, so there's a lot of stuff to stay on top of."

It's not the first time Labuschagne has transformed his home into a makeshift cricket training facility.

His initial appearance in international cricket – as a substitute fielder who claimed a stunning catch during Australia's 2014 Test against India at the Gabba – was accompanied by a video of the Queenslander making a similarly athletic interception to grab a piece of corn cob falling from his kitchen bench.

Since then, Labuschagne has enjoyed a scarcely believable rise through international ranks that saw him crowned men's Test Player of the Year at last month's Australian Cricket Awards, 18 months after his Test debut and less than a year since he was a last-minute addition to Australia's 2019 Ashes touring party.

During that Test campaign against England, he also became Test cricket's inaugural concussion substitute when he was thrown into a hostile confrontation at Lord's against fast bowler Jofra Archer who, with Essex spinner Simon Harmer, also made the list of Wisden's five players of the year.

If Labuschagne's head was spinning from the dizzying ascent he has undertaken – he now sits behind only former Australia captain Steve Smith and India skipper Virat Kohli in the global Test batting rankings – the current shutdown has afforded him a chance to contemplate his progress.

Albeit in unplanned and unwanted circumstances.

"The game had moved so quick for me in the last 18 months I hadn't really had time to sit back and go 'this is what I've achieved, this is what I've been able to do'," he said.

"This time now makes you sit down and reflect on what's happened and how it’s all unfolded.

"You try to speak to people, you try and stay positive, and think 'oh well, we're going to be back playing soon'.

"And the problem is no-one really knows how this is unfolding.

"For me, it's just about taking it week by week and day by day, just trying to improve myself in other areas of life that I've probably neglected for the last couple of months.

"So that’s my challenge.

"But I really hope that it all turns quickly and that we get on top of this virus and get back playing and see not just cricket, but live sport.

"I don't know how long away we are from getting crowds back in grounds, but I think our first objective is to get sport back on television."