Marnus Labuschagne’s spot in the Australia team against England could come at the expense of Sam Konstas

“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.

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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