Last Update: February 08, 2023, 10:25 IST
There will be an important match between Ravi Ashwin and Marnus Labuschagne in BGT.
Ahead of the first match of the series against India, the Australian middle-order batsman spoke at length about the spinner he most wants to face: Ravichandran Ashwin.
Australian middle-order batsman Marnus Labuschagne has said that with his battle India Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will be like a chess battle. In an exclusive interview with Cricbuzz, the 28-year-old South African-born Australian spoke at length about Ashwin and how he is going to take him on.
Furthermore, he also spoke about how he and Smudge (Steve Smith) faced Ashwin at the SCG when India toured Australia.
Labuschagne, who made his Test debut against Pakistan in Dubai, played 33 Tests for Australia and scored over 3,000 runs, including ten centuries. He is considered a great player of spin, but facing the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja in subcontinent conditions will be a completely different challenge.
“But with Ashwin, it is more of a game of chess. He is willing to bowl ugly, which very few other spin bowlers like to do. He is willing to bowl ugly to be effective. You saw that in Australia where he just bowled, as we can say in Australia, ‘negative’ lines but it’s fantastic cricket. You are not able to score runs to the batsmen. You’re tying them down, tying them down. And then what he does great is he attacks your outside edge with the pressure that he has built there (like he did at the MCG),” he told Cricbuzz.
“But it’s great. So when I’m there, and when we go to the SCG, Smudge and I played him very well out there and we came up with some great options and maybe decided to play a little bit more. Instead of him Dominating play like in the first few matches. Obviously, Adelaide was a bit tricky wicket, the pink ball slipped quite a bit. The MCG swung around a lot in the first two sessions. I think the challenge is as much the mindset as he came at me. I know he must have seen how I swept away and knew that I was sweeping when I did something.
“I have to go away and make sure that when I am sweeping or doing different things in my game, it is not predictable and he cannot read it. It has made me a better player since our last encounter. And hopefully it can happen in this series.
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