Marnus Labuschagne has been one of the top scorers with the bat for Australia, but he too will admit that he has looked way below he was batting against New Zealand and Pakistan in the last Australian summer. In Labuschagne's views, it is more to do with the pinpoint accuracy of the Indian bowling line up along with perfect field placement.
Labuschagne has said that the tourists’ bowlers have been able to contain Australian batsmen as they have been relentless with their line of attack on stumps, along with packed leg aide field. He also said a lot of shots they used to get away with a four, have resulted in mere a single against India.
"They've certainly come in with a plan... and made sure they're really not leaving the stumps and having a really heavy leg-side field. It obviously slows your scoring rate down because those shots you do get on your legs go for one, not four. We need to be very disciplined and we also need to come up with ways to put them under pressure," Labuschagne said in the virtual press conference.
Labuschagne was troubled by Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, and after getting a reprieve by DRS, the right-hander was caught at the slip off Ashwin on a delivery that kept on going with the arm from round the wicket angle. The ongoing tour is fourth of Ashwin, and the wily off-spinner is showing all his tricks on Australian pitches and really making great use of his experience over the last three tours. Labuschangne commended Ashwin for his quality bowling and said that the way he has shown his class in the series, he deserves all the stats he owns in Test cricket.
"I've never faced Ashwin before until this series. You don't have the stats that Ravi has without being a great bowler and also a great thinker. He's (Ashwin) obviously come in really prepared and they're being really crafty with their field and what they're trying to do. We have fallen into their trap a few times," Labuschagne said.
Australia will challenge India’s comeback in Sydney in the third Test, and Labuschange has batted well on the SCG pitch. In the last summer, he scored a masterful double century against New Zealand, while he also showed his promise against the same opposition-- India during the last Border Gavaskar series. As the series has progressed to the third Test with Australian top order under pressure, Labuschange will be looking forward to rediscovering his fluency with the bat.
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