Fox Cricket’s David Warner is “not convinced” that Marnus Labuschagne has overcome his form issues despite the Australian number three’s impressive innings in Adelaide.
Labuschagne scored a much-needed half-century after baring the wrath of the Australian public and media following scores of two and three in the series opener at Perth’s Optus Stadium.
He was averaging 13.66 in his five most recent Tests before the pink ball spectacle at the Adelaide Oval, but Labuschagne defied his critics with a knock of 64 that crucially included making it to stumps on night one alongside Nathan McSweeney.
Labuschagne and his protege doing the hard yards under lights set the platform for Travis Head to smash the Indians to all parts of day two with his swashbuckling century, but Warner did not think his former teammate was at his best.
The Queenslander was caught at gully after slashing at a ball from Nitish Kumar Reddy that was too close to his body to cut, and Warner found his dismissal to be of little surprise as he was tempting fate throughout his innings.
“I’m still not convinced with Marnus. I don’t think that was anywhere near what we know he’s capable of,” Warner said.
“He might have got a couple out of the middle, got a couple of freebies, batted well that night to get through but they bowled poorly.
“So from that perspective, he had the best conditions to come out and bat in. But he got out the same way he always does get out when he gets over 50, hits it straight to gully.
“So there’s a lack of awareness there of what he’s got to be mindful of. I don’t think he’s anywhere near where he should be.”
Meanwhile, Fox Cricket’s Adam Gilchrist was full of praise for the way Labuschagne approached batting on the first evening when talking on The Follow-On podcast.
The legendary wicket-keeper batter was particularly impressed by his positive intent in defence, and while he admitted that Labuschagne’s dismissal was “reasonably soft”, Gilchrist believes that he has laid the foundations for more runs in the series.
“Simple things when you defend, if you’re immediately looking to size up whether there is a single or not, I might be wrong but in Perth it seemed he was so focused on being rock solid in defence that you lose the intent in that action,” Gilchrist said.
“You might then miss and opportunity to pinch a quick single, and get yourself off strike and not get bogged down.
“Everything he did (in Adelaide) was really positive and looked like he had the right intent.
“He would have been extremely disappointed to give up his wicket the way he did in the end, in what turned out to be a reasonably soft manner.
“The fact that he spent some time at the crease, started accumulating runs and had that really important partnership with McSweeney, I think, has set Marnus back on the right track. Now, it is his job to replicate that over and over.”
Since Labuschagne’s last Test century, in the second innings at Old Trafford during last year’s Ashes series, he has been dismissed in the 60s three times, and was also out for 90 against New Zealand in Christchurch.
He has only scored one another fifty in that time, an unbeaten 62 against Pakistan in Sydney, but the issues with conversion have been far from Labuschagne’s biggest problem.
In the 19 Test innings he has played since the Manchester rearguard that helped Australia cling on for a draw before rain washed away the final day’s play, Labuschagne is averaging 24.47.
That number is why the Australian public, as well as members of the media, were riding him hard, but intriguingly, Labuschagne’s average in 2024 of 28.09, is superior to fellow top order batters Usman Khawaja (25.66) and Steve Smith (23.20).
But Warner is not as concerned about the veterans as he is about Labuschagne.
“Steve, of late, I think a lot of teams have been bowling at his pads and down leg side,” Warner said.
“So I think from that perspective they’re trying to shut his scoring down quite a bit. You see he’s trying to tinker with fixing certain things with Bumrah. His feet weren’t moving across this time.
“We know what Steve’s like, one knock and then he’s there. But as we know, the best form of currency is runs so you’ve just got to try your best to churn them out.
“‘Uz’, exactly the same. He’s had a great 12 months before. But then of late he hasn’t scored as many runs as he would have liked, but same things, you’ve just got to go out there and still present the same attitude, the same at training, keep working hard.”
The pink-ball certainly caused headaches for the likes of Smith and Khawaja, as well as the Indian top order in Adelaide, and Warner suggested that because day/night Tests are played so differently to red-ball contests, that the statistics from those games should be separated.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma made just three and six in first match of the series as he was trapped in front by Scott Boland and knocked over by a peach from his opposite number, Pat Cummins.
The low scores brought Sharma’s average for the year down to 27.13, but Warner believes batters should not be punished for being undone in the more bowler-friendly conditions.
“It’s a pink-ball game. When I look at the pink ball, the ball swings, it’s completely different. It’s always one of those games that I’ve looked at on the calendar as, it should have its own stats,” Warner said.
“At the end of the day, not everyone plays pink ball.”
SHASTRI: INDIA SHOULD NOT ‘HOLD BACK ONE BIT’
Indian great Ravi Shastri has called for Rohit Sharma’s side to fight fire with fire after some heated exchanges during Australia’s 10-wicket victory in Adelaide.
There was none more talked about than Mohammad Siraj’s clash with Travis Head after knocking over India’s World Test Championship Final and ODI World Cup Final nemesis for 140.
Head’s home crowd were always going to turn Siraj into public enemy number one, and Shastri wants to see more drama like it.
“I’m sure Siraj and Head are mature individuals who will deal with it and the dust would have settled already,” Shastri wrote in a column for CODE Sports.
“If anything, I wouldn’t have expected anything else from a fast bowler after he’d been hit for a six. Siraj was letting off some steam. That’s the fast bowler’s temperament. You want it to be like that.
“When I was playing, my philosophy was to give it back as good as you get. And it’s exactly what I would tell my players when I was coaching India in Australia. Do not hold back one bit.
“Do not take even one backward step. It then became the team’s philosophy and everyone from Virat Kohli to Rishabh Pant and every member of the squad was prepared to give it back to the Aussies.”
Shastri also wants to see a change of approach from India with the bat in the third Test, starting Saturday.
Sharma missed Indian’s win in Perth due to the birth of his second child, and returned to the line-up in Adelaide at number six.
The middle order is where the dashing right-hander has been stationed for almost half the 65 Test matches he has played, but in 2019 he made the move to the top, where he bats in white-ball cricket, and 9 of his 12 Test centuries have come after taking on the new ball.
“What I’d like to see in Brisbane is for the captain to return to the top of the order. Opening the batting is where Rohit belongs,” Shastri said.
“They might have tried having him in the middle in Adelaide but they have to immediately go back on that plan and instead push KL Rahul down the order.
“You need Rohit setting the tempo at the top. That’s his best position.”
