Marnus Labuschagne started the India series with a bang saying he wanted to be a player who could play in all three formats for Australia, and teammate Steve Smith was also impressed by his first knock in ODI cricket in Rajkot. Labuschagne “looked right at home” in his first ODI innings against India as he scored 46 from 47 balls in Rajkot. Moreover, he and Steve Smith stitched a 96-run partnership for the third wicket in 15.4 overs.

“I thought Marnus played really well in his first bat in one-day international cricket,” Smith was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.au.”He was really busy, we were going at a reasonable rate, we were going at around six an over there for a while.”

“The way Marnus played in his first (innings), to have the courage to hit one over mid-off off Kuldeep (Yadav) really early on, that just shows he’s got something about him. We know he’s in terrific form, he’s been batting beautifully, but transferring that into one-day cricket now is another thing,” he added.

Read here: Steve Smith Shares the Reason of Rajkot ODI defeat

“I thought he looked exceptionally good tonight. He hit the gaps hard, ran hard between the wickets and played some nice shots. The one off Jadeja was a beautiful shot. He looked right at home. And there’s no reason why the three-four-five (batting order) can’t stay as it is,” he shared.

Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne had steadied the ship after David Warner (15) and Aaron Finch (33) fell very cheaply in the second ODI. However, it was the dismissals of Alex Carey and Steve Smith before Ashton Turner that led Australia to loss the game with a game to go. The loss was their first of the summer as well.