The bromance between Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne that first came to our attention during the 2019 Ashes is now a tale of enduring love.
“They do everything together,” former Australia coach Justin Langer said last week. “Drink coffee, have nets, play tennis.”
Rarely, though, do both fail in the same cricket match. This was the 33rd Test the pair have played together — or rather 32 together and one as ships in the night, Labuschagne replacing Smith at Lord’s as a concussion substitute in 2019.
Never before have both batted twice and scored so few runs, Labuschagne’s first golden duck setting the tone for a tough week in which the world’s No1 and No2-ranked batters mustered just 35 runs between them.
For England then, for all they will be thrilled to have made headway against both players so early in the series, there will be frustration not to have taken full advantage and a 1-0 lead.
For Australia, meanwhile, here was further evidence of a brief era in which they were reliant on the big two for runs having passed. After a 2-1 defeat in India earlier this year, the tourists flew home with a sense of an opportunity missed, despite neither of their best players having managed even a half-century across four Tests.
Usman Khawaja’s golden run as opener and Travis Head’s blossoming into a free-scoring middle-order aggressor have seen the burden more evenly shared. Alex Carey, at No7, looks in good touch on this tour and is certainly an upgrade on wicketkeeper predecessor Tim Paine with the bat, as well.
It goes without saying, though, that Australia will still look to Smith and Labuschagne to shape this series. In the case of the former, it is easy enough to write this opener off as a bit of an aberration. Smith’s last century in England came only a couple of weeks ago and, on the eve of this series, he declared himself every bit as good as the player who had averaged 110 on the Ashes tour of 2019.
If that assessment is even half-right, it seems impossible that at some stage in this series the 34-year-old will not near-enough win a match on his own.
Over Labuschagne, though, there hangs a small question, one which could yet be answered in emphatic fashion but that England will no doubt seek to ask every opportunity over the next six weeks: the matter of whether officially the planet’s best batter might only be worthy of that title when playing in his own back yard.
Nearly five years on from his debut, Labuschagne has 10 Test hundreds, but only one outside Australia, against Sri Lanka at Galle, and averages 37 in away Tests compared to 70 at home. That is a big discrepancy, even considering most players are more adept in familiar surrounds: for Smith, those figures are 55 and 59; Joe Root averages 55 in England and 47 overseas.
Those are lofty comparisons, but that is the air Labuschagne aspires to breathe.
