MarnusLabuschagne

Born in South Africa, Marnus Labuschagne migrated with his family to Brisbane in 2004 and entered the Queensland Cricket underage system when he was 11.

The top-order batter made his first-class debut in the opening round of the 2014–15 Sheffield Shield campaign, aged 20, grinding out 83 runs against South Australia as an opener.

With just three List A games under his belt heading into the 2016-17 season, Labuschagne turned heads by being named Player of the Tournament for the 2016 Matador One-Day Cup, finishing with 273 runs at 45 to help steer the Bulls into the final.

The following season Labuschagne hit his straps in the red-ball arena, featuring in Queensland's triumphant Sheffield Shield side, and finishing the season as the competition's second-highest run-scorer with 795 runs at 39.75, including two hundreds.

Several months later, Labuschagne was awarded with Test cap No.455 on Australia's tour of the UAE in October 2018, making 0 and 13 on debut.

After losing and then regaining his spot in the following home summer, the right-hander's Test career really took off in 2019 when after an unexpected Ashes cameo (becoming Test cricket's first concussion substitute) he ended up being the world’s leading run-scorer in Tests for the calendar year. What followed was a dominant home season which included four centuries from five matches, including a double-century.

Arguably one of Labuschagne's best centuries came during the 2023 Ashes series, when the Queenslander held off a rampant England attack to score an invaluable 111 in Manchester, securing the draw that would retain the urn.

Labuschagne was initially left out of Australia's 15-man squad for the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, but an injury to Ashton Agar opened the door for the middle-order batter and he took it with both hands, playing every match of Australia's campaign and scoring a crucial 58 not out in the final.

The prolific batter played his 50th Test match in New Zealand in March 2024 with over 4,000 runs to his name in the format, having established himself as Australia's No.3 since that breakout Ashes campaign in 2019.