The Marnus mat: Backyard brilliance gets Labuschagne in swing for Pakistan

It’s hard to correlate the Marnus Labuschagne on social media with the Marnus Labuschagne who sits atop the world rankings as the game’s best Test batsman.

There’s this guy goofing around with cricket and then there’s this serious face on the International Cricket Council website sitting under a baggy green cap with the No.1 against his name.

But Labuschagne’s exploits on social media have a serious side, most recently the “Marnus Mat”, as he explained after training in Brisbane on Monday.

Labuschagne has taped aluminium plates to a black rubber mat from Bunnings, which has become a cricket pitch on his back balcony, offering awkward variations of turn and bounce facing a taped-up tennis ball.

“You get a few of the boys around and you play a bit in the backyard, so it’s enjoyable and training,” said Labuschagne, sounding a little like an excited high school kid. “I spent a little bit of time on it. It’s something I always think of.”

Labuschagne made his Test debut against Pakistan in 2018 in the UAE but will be part of the first Australian squad to tour the country in 24 years.

He heads to Melbourne on Tuesday for four days of training in the squad bubble before flying out, with the first Test beginning on March 4 in Rawalpindi. This is not the first time the Marnus Mat has been used to prepare for a tour.

“I did something similar with that same mat before I went to England in 2019,” he said. “I tried to create a wicket and a ball that nipped around a lot but didn’t bounce, because one of the big factors when you go to England is it nips and swings and it seams, but the ball sort of hits the stumps from a shorter length.

“So a little bit of a similar thing going to Pakistan, I thought, ‘Well what’s the best way I can recreate spin?’ But not just consistent spin, because I think that’s quite easy to create, you get a mat or something, but the inconsistency. So some spin, some slide, and you can’t really predict what it’s doing, so you have to come up with a plan and a method. That was the thought behind it. And it’s always fun.”

With so few tours of Pakistan over the past two decades because of security concerns, there is uncertainty about how the pitches will play.

While tours of the subcontinent conjure images of dust bowls, Pakistan have a strong pace attack led by exciting 21-year-old left-armer Shaheen Afridi, who is ranked fifth on the list of the world’s leading bowlers.

“If the wickets are what I’ve heard, they’ve got a good pace attack, and they’ve got some pace in their wickets,” Labuschagne said. “Well, we’ve had plenty of practice on fast, bouncy wickets at the Gabba, so I think we’ve got that covered.

“The one aspect we don’t have is spin. We don’t necessarily have too many wickets around the country that spin.”

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