Marnus Labuschagne

Marnus Labuschagne's ascent to the higher echelons of Test batting hinged on an unexpected opportunity. During the Lord's Test against England in August 2019, Steven Smith was felled by a bouncer and Labuschagne became his concussion substitute - the first such in Test history. A few months later he had eclipsed Smith as the leading Test run-scorer in the world for the calendar year, and locked in Australia's No. 3 spot, during a prolific home summer that brought him four centuries in five matches against Pakistan and New Zealand, including a double-century at the SCG.

Labuschagne was a surprise call-up for the 2018 tour of UAE to face Pakistan, when Australia began to rebuild following the ball-tampering crisis of 2018 that resulted in bans for Smith and David Warner. He didn't exactly shine, and so was something of a shock choice to bat at No. 3 against India in Sydney later that year, in just his third Test, and with a first-class average in the low 30s.

Born in Klerksdorp, South Africa, to South African parents, he emigrated with his family to Australia in 2004, when he was ten. Before his international call-up Labuschagne was best known for his work as a substitute short-leg fielder for Australia, taking a superb catch off Nathan Lyon in the 2014 Brisbane Test against India. Earlier that season he had made 83 on his first-class debut, for Queensland. In the 2017-18 Sheffield Shield, he was the second-highest scorer, with 795 runs, including two hundreds.

In Labuschagne's first two Tests it was his useful legspin that stood out as much as his batting: he took eight wickets while showing a glimmer of his potential with the bat in Abu Dhabi. Following the recall against India, he made a composed 81 in the pink-ball Test against Sri Lanka in Brisbane.

He signed for Glamorgan for the first part of the 2019 county season, ahead of the Ashes, and churned out 1114 runs in ten matches, honing his technique against the moving Dukes ball. He largely maintained his prolific early form over the following Test seasons, averaging over 50 in the 2020-21 home series against India, and making 502 runs in two Tests against West Indies in 2022-23.

The South Africa series that followed was a bit of a rude awakening, and life got progressively tougher for Labuschagne. He only managed one score of 50-plus from eight innings in India, and if he hadn't made a fifty and hundred in the Old Trafford Test on the 2023 tour to England, his outlook would have been grim indeed. When India came next, in 2024-25, when he failed to go past 12 in six innings, and just about saved his spot with two seventies in the Melbourne Test.

In ODIs, his pickings were mostly slim until he sprang to life with 283 runs at 70 in the bilateral series against South Africa, just in time for the 2023 World Cup. Come that tournament, he was at his best, making 71 against England and an unbeaten 58 in the final against India, when Australia secured their sixth title.

In the BBL, though Labuschagne has been in the Brisbane Heat squad in the BBL since 2016, and won the title with them in 2023-24, he has mostly only played a small handful of games each season.