Marnus Labuschagne is quite impressed with how the Indian bowlers have gone about their job so far in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which is tied 1-1 midway.

“India have been very disciplined in their bowling and their plans with both pace and spin. They maintained a straight line and that probably made us strike at just about two runs an over.

“They are not deviating from the stumps and having a heavy leg-side field, which obviously slows your scoring rate down. At the same time, India are also taking the catches on the leg side,” Labuschagne said in a virtual media conference ahead of the penultimate Test at the SCG, which will be broadcast live on Sony Six and Sony Ten channels.

“Just like them (India), we also got to show discipline and come up with ways to put them under pressure,” Labuschagne added.

Australia’s batting has looked lean as Steve Smith and Labuschagne have struggled to score big. Speaking about that, the Australia No.3 said: “I wouldn’t want to give excuses for not scoring enough runs.

“Like I said, India have bowled very well. So for us, it’s just about making sure we keep finding ways to score. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but we have got to keep grinding and if we do get in, we must get a big score,” he stated.

He went on to add: “You can call what you want to call it, but not too long ago, Smithy got two hundreds off 60-odd balls in ODIs (versus India in Sydney). Maybe he hasn’t had as much time against the red ball as he would have liked to, but that’s the reality of cricket in this Covid situation.”

Tackling Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin has troubled and dismissed both Labuschagne and Smith in the preceding Tests. About him, Labuschagne said: “You can’t have the figures and stats that Ravi has without being a great bowler and a great thinker. He has obviously come in really prepared and been really crafty with his field.

“We have fallen into the trap a few times, so we need to review those dismissals and then come back stronger, ensuring we’re learning from each innings.”