Six quotes that tell you who Marnus Labuschagne is

Get to know the Australian batsman coming off a terrific year in Test cricket. Read Daniel Brettig's full interview for the Cricket Monthly here.

"He came off the plane. He had red and green horizontal-striped shorts, like the Grinch, he had odd socks on, his phone was all cracked, his iPad was all cracked, he looked like he'd literally got out of bed. I said, 'Mate, is that the way you travel?' He says, 'Well, I'm just coming to see you', I said, 'What if I had the CEO of Cricket NSW with me?' and he goes, 'Yeah, but you haven't.'

"I told Marnus, 'I've got this meeting with a tennis coach, so can you just sit there and shut up?' And this bloke took the meeting over! I got back in the car and said, 'What the f**k was that?' He goes, 'Well, I thought he wanted my opinion', and I go, 'No one wanted your opinion, mate. You weren't supposed to be there. And he just started laughing. When he does something like that, he'll cuddle you and go, 'Love you.'"
Labuschagne's coach Neil D'Costa on the first time he met his charge

"Towards the end of his stint at Glamorgan, I remember saying to the boys, 'I've played with Marnus for a long time, he's always had more talent than I have but our records at the time of joining were very similar. I've never seen someone improve at this speed except Steve Smith'."
Queensland and Glamorgan team-mate Chris Hemphrey on the growth he's seen in Labuschagne

"I said to Justin [Langer], 'I've got a young bloke about to break your record.' He said, 'No one will break that record.' I said, 'Well, his name's Marnus Labuschagne, you better stay tuned. And with 300 runs to go, I wrote, '300 to go' ,'200 runs to go', '100 runs to go', 'Gone'. I said to Langer, 'You watch this journey now, mate, you watch him go'."
D'Costa on Labuschagne breaking Justin Langer's 22-year record for most runs in a season in the Kent Cricket League Premier Division

"If the bowler is swinging it in or trying to bring it back in off the pitch, at the stumps, how am I going to make the margin for error for the perfect ball as small as possible? Marnus would get across to off stump and go, 'If I'm defending, I'll probably be outside the line. And if you want to go at my pads and I miss it, then I'm out', but he backed himself to do that. He got out lbw but he averaged 65, and you take that."
Hemphrey on Labuschagne's batting approach

"I couldn't wait for Marnus to get married. When he left home, got married, took on responsibilities for payments and looking after his car, his wife, his dog, I saw the boy become a man."
D'Costa on how marriage has matured Labuschagne

"Neil said, 'Mate, nothing else matters. You can try to chop and change, you can do whatever you want, but at the end of the day, the only currency is runs'. That was something that really hit me, because at times I'd tried to become the perfect batter instead of just going out there and trusting what I had was good enough."
Labuschagne on getting clarity of purpose