Greg Chappell says Marnus Labuschagne’s turnaround must begin in his mind

Former Australia batter Greg Chappell has written a detailed assessment of Marnus Labuschagne‘s prolonged loss of form, concluding that the path back to consistent run-scoring runs through the batter’s own mind rather than the nets.

Labuschagne’s last Test century came at Old Trafford during the 2023 Ashes. Since that knock in July 2023, he has gone 49 innings without reaching three figures in Test cricket, accumulating 1,094 runs at an average of 24.31 with only 9 fifties across 26 Tests. His recent series against South Africa, both away and at home, produced just 131 runs across 6 innings with a best score of 39.

“The ancients understood that the mind rules the body, meaning any real battle against adversity is fought upstairs first. For Marnus Labuschagne, as he looks to find his best form again, any turnaround has to start in his head. When I think about the low periods of my batting career, I realise they were mostly a failure of the mind rather than the body,” Chappell wrote on Cricinfo.

“Mindless practice was worse than no practice at all. To succeed, I knew I had to improve at the things I needed to be good at. I realised the most important thing was to arrive at the ground with the right attitude. This could not guarantee success on any given day, but arriving with the wrong attitude guaranteed failure,” he elaborated.

What is Elite Players Decline Syndrome and how does Chappell apply it to Labuschagne?

Chappell introduced a concept he calls ‘Elite Players Decline Syndrome’ to explain the pattern he sees in Labuschagne’s batting. He described it as a condition that affects elite batters who have played at the highest level for an extended period, where the accumulated knowledge of how difficult run-scoring is begins to work against them rather than for them. He recounted speaking of the idea with Sachin Tendulkar.

“Almost every elite batter who has played at the highest level for an extended period goes through what I call Elite Players Decline Syndrome (EPDS). Sachin Tendulkar asked me years ago why batting gets harder as you get older. Surely it must get easier! As I explained to Sachin, it gets harder because you know how difficult it is to make runs against quality bowling attacks, and you get more conservative as you age. The only way I know to overcome EPDS is to recreate the thought processes of your younger self. That is easier said than done,” Chappell elaborated.

Chappell applied this framework squarely to the Aussie number three, elaborating on the deterioration in the latter’s technique and movements on the crease.

“Watching Marnus recently, I suspect he too is suffering from EPDS. When I hear him talk about having to work harder, I doubt he will turn his form around anytime soon. To watch him now, he is crab-like at the crease and rarely makes contact with the ball in front of the popping crease. Where he once got to the ball a metre in front of the crease with a full, flowing bat, he is now prodding around, searching for the ball with his hands,” he explained.

“Where he was once cat-like in his movements, he is now flat-footed, as though he doesn’t pick up the ball until it is halfway down the pitch. Flat feet do not let you access the ground-reaction forces that help you move forward or back. He now has very few balls he can attack, which feeds his frustration,” he added.

What does Chappell recommend as the way forward for Labuschagne?

Chappell argued that the root of Labuschagne’s difficulties is a loss of trust in his subconscious. In his prime, the Aussie batter allowed his subconscious to drive his decisions at the crease, freeing his conscious mind to focus on watching the ball and scoring. That balance has since broken down, and the consequences are visible in every innings.

“In his heyday Marnus trusted his subconscious mind to make his decisions. All he had to do was give the conscious mind what it was designed for: seeing the ball out of the hand and intending to score. Now I believe he has lost confidence in the subconscious doing the job, so he lets the conscious mind take over every action, like a control-freak manager. The conscious mind cannot run the program as efficiently and it botches the task,” Chappell said.