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In the Junction Oval nets, Sam Konstas makes his new trigger movement and is struck squarely on the front pad by a throwdown from a New South Wales assistant. He’s watched by a solitary spectator.
A couple of hours later, and a bit over 730 kilometres away, in Adelaide, Marnus Labuschagne raises his bat to the Queensland dressing room after reaching his fourth hundred in five hits for his state. The spectator in this case is selection chair George Bailey, who’s flown in from Hobart.
Marnus Labuschagne made his fourth hundred in five hits for Queensland.Credit: Getty Images
On Thursday, every possible sign pointed to Labuschagne making a quick return to the Australian Test side for the start of the Ashes in Perth. With scores of 130, 2, 160 105 and 101 not out so far this season, he has run into some seriously good touch.
Another contender is Jake Weatherald, who reeled off a string of boundaries for Tasmania against Western Australia at Bellerive Oval to make his case as a proactive opener: his Shield scores this season are 67, 57, 18 and, now, 94. Weatherald’s chances increase if the selectors prefer Labuschagne at three.
Konstas, however, appears destined to be deposed. He has a fair bit of technical and tactical work to do before he can contemplate adding to his tally of five Tests for Australia. After a century for Australia A in India, scores of 49, three, four, 14, 40 and zero have underlined a work in progress.
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Konstas’ state coach Greg Shipperd admitted as much to this masthead, noting that there was still something of a war being fought within Konstas about exactly how to play and when.
“He’s not totally familiar yet with how he’s wanting to play,” Shipperd said, though maintaining that Konstas should stay in the selection conversation for Test cricket this summer.
“His preparation has been outstanding and disciplined, but he’s still finding the odd occasion in a match where [he has] the urge to replicate those first innings moments [on Boxing Day] and trying to control when to apply them.
“There are times to apply them, but he’s trying to find that balance at the moment.
“He played on a tough wicket [in Perth] and tried to tough it out in the first innings, [in the] second innings he made some adjustments where he might’ve overcooked that circumstance, but we’re trying to find out on the fly how to negotiate that.”
The national selectors have noted that Konstas’ pre-ball trigger movement is not yet 100 per cent locked into a consistent pattern. His battle to get in-sync was clear when he was pinned in front of the stumps by Scott Boland in the first innings of the Sheffield Shield game against Victoria. Seaming back sharply, the ball may have slid past leg stump, but was still a decisive victory for the seasoned Boland.
Sam Konstas was trapped lbw to Scott Boland without scoring.Credit: Getty Images
At the same time, Labuschagne’s imminent Test comeback has been the fruit of a realisation from both the player and the selectors that he needed time out of the side to work on clearing his method and his mind.
Labuschagne is far from the first Australian Test cricketer to conclude, in hindsight, that when trying to keep his spot, it became increasingly difficult to find the clarity needed to deal with the issues that put him under pressure in the first place.
Rather than anything particularly technical, these issues have related largely to the kind of decision-making and mental application required to play the long innings that first made Labuschagne a fixture in the Test team.
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Labuschagne is a more dangerous player when he is looking to score – something he failed to do at inopportune moments against India last summer – but he must also make the right decision about where and when to do so.
One past series that stood out to those around Labuschagne for similar lessons was the 2022 tour of Pakistan. On flat surfaces that rewarded concentration and consistency, Labuschagne found himself getting out in ways that suggested mental fatigue, rather than technical malaise.
Last summer, it was former teammate David Warner who distilled concerns around Labuschagne as being related to a “lack of awareness” about field settings and game situations – not so much technical as mental and tactical.
“I’m still not convinced with Marnus,” Warner had said during the Adelaide Test. “He got out the same way he always does get out when he gets over 50 – hits it straight to gully.
“So there’s a lack of awareness there. I don’t think he’s anywhere near where he should be.”
With the benefit of time out of the Test team, Labuschagne now looks a lot closer to where the team would want, and it is Konstas who must work on his awareness of match situations – and pacemen hunting his front pad.
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