At the best of times, Marnus Labuschagne is among the slowest to drag himself off the field after he’s been dismissed in a Test match. On Saturday afternoon at the Great Barrier Reef Arena, he made probably the most painful exit of his career, as his Test future took the most ominous turn towards being completely taken out of his hands.

Labuschagne must have turned around at least on four occasions and looked back at his dislodged bail. It started with his immediate reaction to hearing the ball crashing into his middle-stump after it had ricocheted off the slightly protruding underside of his thigh guard. Australia’s No 3 rocked his head back, threw one hand up in the air in utter belief and stood there for half a minute as if he was willing for the bail to just get back into its place. He’d look behind and throw longing glances at his disturbed set of stumps on two other occasions at least, his despair growing with each look. At one point, he turned around completely to face the pitch again, as if he was imagining one of the Bangladeshis would call him back the crease on the grounds of how unfortunate he’d been to get out in that fashion.

It wasn’t to be and Labuschagne had no choice but to depart after having spent 26 restless minutes in the middle, only facing nine deliveries for his 4, which came from an edged boundary through the slip cordon.

In many ways, there was some symbolism to how the 32-year-old wouldn’t stop looking back at the scene of his crime in Mackay. For, it did feel like this was Labuschagne somehow looking into the rearview mirror to get his head around how he’d gone from being the No 1 Test batter in the world to having his Test career now hanging in the balance. All in the space of 3-4 years. With the latest dismissal, as unlucky as it may have seemed in every other scenario, the most vivid sign of how far it had slumped, a Test average that had peaked at 62, now having dropped nearly 20 points to 43.7. Maybe there was also a feeling of if only he could turn the clock back. Back to the summer of 2022-23 perhaps, when he couldn’t stop scoring runs.

Labuschagne’s entire stay in the middle on the first-ever day of Test cricket in Mackay had a feel of him trying to hang on to lost glory. Like he’d taken the stage with his future on the line and decided to try his best to play his greatest hits. It meant the return of all his once-routine mannerisms. From checking on the bail before facing up to the bowler at the start of the over, to trying to get into the contest with the bowlers by staring right back at them in their follow through. He’d even brought back the exaggerated hand gestures, akin to Steve Smith, after leaving deliveries outside the off-stump. Along with his trademark “Noo runnn” after defending a delivery from Taskin Ahmed, the Marnus trademark that had become the war-cry of junior cricket around the country when he was at his peak. After all the characteristic technical tinkering, from grips to where he stands at the crease, he seemed to have embraced that old adage of going back to what had worked for him at his best. There were signs of it even in his preparation for this match.

“I make cricket so hard,” he’d been overheard telling himself during one of his net sessions at Harrup Park in the lead-up to this Test.

All of it to no avail as he failed to force the clock backwards and to regain his once unflappable aura, which had made him the most popular cricketer in Australia. Instead, his umpteenth cheap dismissal only meant more scrutiny and further calls for him to be moved on from before Australia head to the country of his birth in a little over a month’s time.

What doesn’t help Labuschagne is the rate at which the historic Test in Mackay has progressed with two full innings nearly completed already. Or for that matter, Matt Renshaw, whose return to Test opening didn’t fuel any great confidence in him being the man for the job. It was the kind of Test match day that we are getting accustomed to as wickets continued to fall with incredible regularity. In conditions where the ball moved around for most parts and the pitch offered enough seam movement to keep the fast bowlers interested. But certainly not the kind to justify the 18 wickets that fell on Saturday, with the two left-armers, Mitchell Starc and Shoriful Islam sharing 12 of those between themselves.

With Australia already 101 runs ahead, despite their own batting frailties there’s every chance that their second innings isn’t significant enough for either of the two Queenslanders to enhance their output from the Test in any great fashion. In Labuschagne’s case in particular, his failure to record the “big score” that his head coach and selector, Andrew McDonald, had asked of him expected to be a further blow into his hopes of clinging on to the No 3 position. One that he seemed destined to hold on for the remainder of his career, which was expected to be peaking around this time rather than grimly resting on the precipice as it is currently.