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Marnus Labuschagne has been encouraged to adopt a more aggressive strategy against India's formidable pace attack, with coach Andrew McDonald affirming that the underperforming batter is still "the player we need" at the critical No.3 position, according to Cricket.com.au.
Labuschagne's recent struggles, marked by six and seven single-figure scores in his last eight innings, have drawn scrutiny, particularly after Australia lost the opening Test of a home summer for the first time since 2018. The 30-year-old's struggles continued as he was dismissed lbw in both innings, falling victim to the visiting seamers' relentless new-ball spells. McDonald identified Labuschagne's inability to score as a major concern. "We look at the way he plays, and when he's at his best - and when we've seen him at his best he's shown great intent at the crease," McDonald said of the former world No.1 Test batter, as quoted by Cricket.com.au. "That's an ongoing discussion and that ebbs and flows in players' careers, so at the moment he's in one of those patches and no doubt he'll be getting critiqued externally," he added. "But internally we're really confident that, at his best, he's the player that we need," said the coach. "The same people in that changeroom are the same people that will be in Adelaide," confirmed McDonald. Despite Labuschagne's pre-series commitment to wearing down India's bowlers over the five-Test series, he managed only two runs in 95 minutes during Australia's first innings in Perth. Labuschagne's capacity to adjust his approach following Australia's humbling defeat in Perth could significantly influence the series outcome. Historically, he has never been an aggressively dominant batter at No.3, but his scoring rate has notably declined alongside his batting average in recent years. Labuschagne's batting average peaked at 63.43 in his 14th Test, following a score of 215 against New Zealand in the 2020 New Year's Test. This match also marked the highest point for his strike-rate at 56.52. However, since then, his scoring pace has significantly slowed. In his last 40 Test innings, beginning with the 2022-23 home series against South Africa, Labuschagne's strike-rate has dropped to 44.18. Coach McDonald pointed out a noticeable decline in Labuschagne's scoring "intent." During India's last Test tour of Australia in 2020-21, data from Opta showed that Labuschagne attacked more than half the balls he faced (56%). By last home summer, this figure had fallen to 41% during Tests against Pakistan and the West Indies. In the first Test against India, he attacked only 22% of the 57 deliveries he faced. "It's always a combination of factors with the mindset," said McDonald, as quoted by cricket.com.au. "There's some technical aspects to that also within the mindset play," he added. "We're really confident he can turn that around," the coach noted. On Monday morning, as Australia prepared for their fourth-innings run chase in the practice nets, Labuschagne was already padded up, waiting to bat, despite having been dismissed the previous evening on his fifth ball. However, McDonald acknowledged that extensive net sessions can only do so much in preparing his top-order for the challenges posed by Jasprit Bumrah and the rest of India's pace attack. Bumrah, the standout performer in Perth, claimed eight wickets in the match and consistently appeared a wicket-taking threat with the new ball. McDonald emphasized the need for his batters to develop strategies to counter Bumrah and apply pressure on the right-armer. "It's always in our preparation that we've got that factored in - release points, trajectories, those types of things. We are covering those off but it's very hard to replicate Bumrah," said McDonald, as quoted by cricket.com.au. "There not two of him so it's like slips catches, we try our best to replicate those but in practice they don't look like they do in a game," he said. "You get as close to that as you possibly can (but) it's a challenge," he added. "... to me it's about how you're going to score runs off Jasprit," McDonald noted. "It's one thing sitting there going, 'How am I going to defend the good balls?', but the art of putting pressure back on him and knowing where you're going to score off him (is important)," he said. "And that's our definition of method, how you're going to score your runs against a certain type of bowler. The boys, they were clear coming in (to the first Test)," the coach added. "But it's one thing being clear coming in and obviously once you get into the heat of battle maintaining your mindset around all of that," he noted. "And that's going to be our challenge," McDonald said. (ANI)
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