Marnus Labuschagne opens up on his first taste of Aussie action ... and that infamous run out

EVERY battling team needs at least one Energiser bunny. A true cricket nuffy, who sees a ray of sunshine when others seen the dark cloud around it. Australia has that in Marnus Labuschagne.

Marnus Labuschagne had a decent series with both bat and ball. Picture: AFP.

MARNUS Labuschagne arrived back in Brisbane at 6.25am (EST) on Sunday looking like a man ready for another game of cricket.

Clear-eyed and still bouncy after a half-day flight from Dubai, he walked past a newsagency which had papers saying he would be required to play a Sheffield Shield match in just 72 hours.

There’s a challenge right there – the fact he has to wait another 72 hours for a game.

Marnus Labuschagne had a decent series with both bat and ball. Picture: AFP.

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What on earth will he do with himself?

He looked ready to pad up at the airport.

I spoke to him for just under five minutes and he could have chatted longer.

The game never bores him and it was not so much what he said but how he said it that spotlighted the one little quality that may give him an edge in the great selection shootout before the first Test against India on December 6.

Undaunted enthusiasm.

Every battling team (like Australia) needs at least one Energiser bunny. A true cricket nuffy, who sees a ray of sunshine when others seen the dark cloud around it.

Marnus Labuschagne says he improved with every turn at the crease in the UAE.

Enthusiasm won’t make or break him but there is little doubt if it’s a 50-50 call – and so many are these days – one of the selectors might just pipe up in his defence.

He returns from the series against Pakistan having played two Tests.

The significant thing was each innings was a little better than the one before. He made 0, 13, 25 and 43 - but it niggles him just as a breakthrough knock was beckoning he was on the plane home.

“It was just one of those series where you felt your plans were coming good, you were getting the hang of the conditions and the bowlers and wickets then it is all over,’’ he said.

“Each innings it did feel a bit better.’’

His series had a bit of everything.

Marnus Labuschagne was a revelation with the ball.

A freakish short-leg catch, a couple of misguided referrals, some excellent leg-spin bowling, a cover drive which was one of the shots of the series and, most famously, an inexplicable run out at the bowlers end where he failed to ground his bat after the ball flicked the fingers of bowler Yasir Shah and hit the stumps.

“It was a brain fade. It is not one of my greatest memories,” he admitted.

“I don’t really have too much else to say. As soon as it hit the stumps I knew I was out.

“I went down to Starcy (Mitchell Starc) and said, ‘I think I’m out here’. I knew the ball hit the bowler’s hand.’’

Labuschagne’s eye-catching leg-spinning return of seven wickets at 22 have intriguing ramifications.

Maybe his slow bowling will be deemed “Asia only”.

Marnus Labuschagne had a great series catching in close.

Maybe he will take Australia back to the days when many senior batsmen (Ian Chappell, Bob Simpson and Keith Stackpole among them) helped out with handy overs of leg-spin.

“I definitely would not have predicted the role I ended up playing in terms of how many overs I bowled but I knew at some point I would bowl,’’ he said.

“My bowling improved as I went on. I became consistent and I did not go for as many runs.

“For the last three months I have been working really hard on it. I have been changing my bowling style to bowl faster, to bring something different.’’

“Making my debut for Australia was a dream come true but when you put that baggy green on it’s about winning games for Australia and we could not do that.’’