The master and his apprentice a study in cricket obsession

Students and staff gathering at an al fresco cafe within the University of South Australia's precinct of Adelaide's west end barely took a second glance at the pair of fresh-faced, T-shirt clad lads lining up for lattes on Wednesday morning.

The streetscape campus, which sprawls across almost four city blocks, is largely devoted to the training of future business managers and marketing types, lawyers and architects, which might explain why notably few recognised cricketers Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne waiting to collect their brews.

As the Australia Test pair then strolled the kilometre or less back to the team hotel, beneath a cloudless late spring sky, they could have passed as any couple of undergraduates easing into their lengthy summer hiatus.

But in reality, they were deeply engaged in the latest of an ongoing series of intensive tutorials in which Smith, taking the role of peerless professor, instils within Labuschagne the insights and instincts he has honed on his rise to the top of the Test batting hierarchy.

Having shared breakfast and coffee, and countless detailed chats, the couple then proceeded to the Adelaide Oval practice nets where they began preparation for the second Domain Test against Pakistan that begins tomorrow.

Image Id: 7E2D8809763145C3BC0F653690791E78 Image Caption: Smith and Labuschagne are inseparable, says Langer // Getty

According to men's team coach Justin Langer, the former Australia skipper and his South Africa-born protégé have become virtually inseparable through their mutual obsession for cricket, and he could not be happier for them.

Langer has lauded Labuschagne's insatiable appetite to learn, a dedication to study that has lifted him 14th on the global Test batter rankings – second only to the top-ranked Smith among Australia players – despite being barely out of his freshman year at international level.

And the Australia coach has no doubt as to where much of that knowledge is being sourced from.

"We talk about coachable players, there's no more coachable player than him," Langer said of Labuschagne, his new No.3 Test batter who unfurled a career-best 185 against Pakistan in Brisbane last week.

"Probably the most heartening thing is the relationship he's built with Steve Smith, the best player in the world.

"They spend time, they talk cricket, they love it. Literally, all they do is talk cricket.

"They eat together, they have breakfast and lunch together, they drink coffee, just talking cricket.

"And they're batting three and four together (in the Test line-up).

"To bat with him (Smith) in the middle and spend time with the best player in the world, and an ex-captain, you could not have a better education than he's getting at the moment."

When Labuschagne was first named in Australia's Test squad for last year's two-Test series against Pakistan in the UAE, while Smith was still serving his 12-month suspension, Langer admitted it was something of a 'hunch' selection.

The Queenslander had showed promise as a middle-order batter and occasional leg spinner in first-class company but won more plaudits for his enthusiasm than results on his maiden Test tour.

He was then recalled to the national line-up as the team struggled in their four-match home series in India, but Langer believes the breakthrough came after Labuschagne took up a short stint with Welsh county Glamorgan in the premier UK competition.

The runs he scored and the technical changes he made during his time in Cardiff, complemented by the poise and positivity he brought to Australia's intra-squad trial match at Southampton prior to the winter's Test series against England earned him a place in the Ashes squad.

And it caught the eye of former Australia skipper Steve Waugh, who turned up to the first pre-Ashes training session at Southampton and immediately identified Labuschagne – who he had not previously seen in action – as one of the squad members who loomed as "the future of Australian cricket".

"He (Waugh) could see it within three hours of watching his first training session for a long time," Langer said yesterday.

"The point is, you've got to use everything – use data, use the numbers, use the analogies of what people are like, and then you can use what you see as well.

"With people like Marnus, you see someone with an incredible work ethic, incredible hunger to get better, very coachable, and an incredible energy and he brings so much to the team.

"It's not just batting and bowling, so you've got to weigh up all those things and there's sometimes when you get it right, and sometimes when you don't."

Similar instincts led to the inclusion of opening batter Cameron Bancroft in the Ashes outfit and underpinned his recent recall to the current Australia squad for the two-match Domain Test Series against Pakistan.

Like Labuschagne, Bancroft's Ashes berth was sealed through his runs-scoring deeds in the county competition (as captain of Durham) and his stand-out batting in difficult conditions in the trial match at Southampton.

However, where Labuschagne prospered when called into the Test team as a concussion substitute for Smith during the second Test at Lord's, Bancroft's form fell away and he has since suffered a lean trot in the Marsh Sheffield Shield so far this summer.

But the right-hander continues to work assiduously on his game, and was the last to depart the nets at Adelaide Oval last night as he took throw downs from bowling coach Troy Cooley under floodlights to perfect his newly instituted splay-footed batting stance.

"He's got out in some freaky ways this year, he's got out caught at leg slip three times in a row in Shield cricket," Langer said of Bancroft, who has scored 57 runs at an average of 11.40 from six Shield innings this summer.

"I haven't seen guys get out at leg slip three times in probably 25 years, let alone three in (succession), so that's probably weighing on him a little bit.

"But he works so hard on his game. All I can go on is what I've seen in the nets, and see what he's doing with Hicky (Bupa Support Team batting coach Graeme Hick).

"He's played some beautiful straight drives, he played some nice straight drives and cover drives in the Australia A game (against Pakistan this month), so he's a work in progress.

"Every player's a work in progress.

"Like Marnus, he works so hard on his game, he brings so much positive energy, and he's a brilliant fielder.

"That's why he's in the squad."

Domain Test Series v Pakistan

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner

Pakistan squad: Azhar Ali (c), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Khan Snr, Iftikhar Ahmed, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Musa Khan, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah.

First Test: Australia won by an innings and five runs.

Second Test: November 29 – December 3, Adelaide (d/n) (Seven, Fox & Kayo)