Need to target Indian bowlers: Marnus Labuschagne

Both Labuschagne and No. 4 Steve Smith, the mainstays of Australian batting, have struggled to get going in the series with the latter aggregating just 10 in four innings

Melbourne: Australian batsmen need to come up with ways of attacking the Indian bowling especially by targeting certain bowlers, says Australia No. 3 Marnus Labuschagne who also praised the Indian bowlers for discipline and holding straight lines to throttle scoring.

Both Labuschagne and No. 4 Steve Smith, the mainstays of Australian batting, have struggled to get going in the series with the latter aggregating just 10 in four innings.

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“I think they have been very disciplined in their bowling and their plans with both spin and pace. I think they have really held that straight line. That made us face a lot of balls, striking at about two runs an over. It is for us to make sure that there are going to be small opportunities for us to showing intent and attacking them,” said Labuschagne while speaking to the media.

Labuschagne added that the field placements with heavy emphasis on the leg-side and bringing fielders in play for catches has worked well for the Indians but he added that the Aussies will discover plans to put them under pressure.

“They have certainly come in with plans with straight fields — making sure they are not leaving stumps – and also having heavy a leg-side field which obviously slows your scoring rate down… they are always keeping those catchers in the game, so we have to come up with two things — we need to be very disciplined and have to come up with ways to put them under pressure,” added Labuschagne.

“For us it is making sure we continue to find ways to score runs. Like I said it doesn’t have to be pretty. We just have to keep grinding away. If we get in, we got to make sure we get big scores.”
The right-handed South Africa-born batsman, who has aggregated just 129 runs in four innings in the series at an average of 32.25, which is much lower than his career average which is close to 60, said the plan will be to target certain bowlers though he refused to reveal specific plans.

“I certainly don’t want to share the plans with you guys otherwise they will know exactly what is coming. But definitely we will talk about once again rotating the strike, finding your boundary options, the normal things you talk about facing any bowling attack. How you can get upper hand against a certain bowler at a certain time of the game. I think they are all the things we are always talking about make sure that when we come into the Test we are brave enough to take on those options when they arise,” added Labuschagne.

“You don’t want to give excuses or any reasons as to why we are not scoring runs. Like I said they have bowled very well, they have been very consistent so for us we have to make sure we find a way.”

Labuschagne added that David Warner brings a lot of energy to the team.

“He is a big inclusion for us if he comes back in, someone with over 7000 Test runs and averaging near-about 50. He is a superb player. I think he is in the top calibre of players. And just the energy that he will bring around the group and his energy in the field. It will be terrific and great to have him,” said Labuschagne.

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