Nein D’ Costa, the longtime mentor of Marnus Labuschagne, advised him to not go overtraining as he appears to be struggling with his form as of now. Labuschagne worked hard in the nets after Australia lost the first Test against India by 295 runs at the Optus stadium in Perth.
Marnus took over Joe Root as the No. 1 Test batter in 2022. However, he is struggling at the moment. The best score by Labuschagne in 2024 was 90 against New Zealand, and he has only scored 245 runs in six Test matches.
“I’d probably just half what he usually does. Just try and clear it up a bit. Keep working on reacting more, not having such rigid plans. Every batter goes through this. Almost everyone around 30 years old, don’t know why it’s that number, seems to have this glitch. He’s a guy we all know, he loves playing cricket. He never leaves a stone unturned. He’s super fit. Does he overthink things? I don’t know, possibly everyone does,” D’Costa told ESPNcricinfo.
“When someone gets to the stage where they are the No. 1 player in the world, they are going to become a target. He couldn’t keep going. He’d be averaging 80. At some stage, don’t want to say it had to happen…it happens to a lot of players. They try a bit too hard and like [Virat] Kohli you have to keep trusting yourself, trusting your processes, trust what you do. Go back and find a way the next day,” he added.
