Marnus Labuschagne opens up on his doubts over his position in Australia’s World Cup final side
Fearing he was about to be dropped for the World Cup final, Marnus Labuschagne’s mind had already turned to how he could support his teammates from the sidelines. Then an alert changed everything.
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Marnus Labuschagne has credited divine intervention for his incredible World Cup survival tale, revealing that he thought he’d been dropped on the eve of the final.
Having initially been bypassed for Australia’s 18-man extended squad, a series of events including injuries to Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Ashton Agar, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell led to the Queenslander playing 19 straight one-day internationals dating back to the first ODI against South Africa in September when Green was concussed, allowing Labuschagne to come into the match as a substitute.
The culmination came on Sunday night at the Narendra Modi Stadium as Labuschagne made an unbeaten 58 from 110 balls, playing the defensive role to support Travis Head, as Australia claimed a six-wicket win to clinch a sixth ODI world title.
Labuschagne had been in a tight selection battle with all-rounder Marcus Stoinis ahead of the semi-final against South Africa, and having made 18 against the Proteas feared he would be left out for the decider.
“Last night. 10 o’clock (the) team hadn’t been announced yet,” Labuschagne said.
“Don’t know, I was sitting on my bed. And I was just like, I was actually thinking, ‘how can I add value then if I’m not playing?’ Maybe fielding? And then at quarter past 10 or 10 o’clock (the) team got sent and it just said ‘same team.’ And so that was a bit of relief.”
In the end, Labuschagne played the stabilising role for which he is best suited to near perfection as the Aussies won with seven overs to spare.
Reflecting on his journey, the devout Christian said the sequence of events that led to him keeping his spot throughout the lead-up and tournament had to be something more than pure chance.
“It’s hard for me not to believe in miracles. And then there’s someone above putting the pieces together,” Labuschagne said.
“Because you know, if you look at how my series … I think I was unofficially dropped five times, but played every game (and) wasn’t in the squad in South Africa.
“Someone got concussed, I got an opportunity, got some runs, pushed my case, got in the squad played every game and played 19 games since the first South African game in a row.
“So it’s hard for me not to think, you know, a man of faith, that there’s not someone else pulling the strings.”
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