Australia player Marnus Labuschagne is excited to use his skills in challenging spin conditions in India as he referred to Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as the real threat during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. While describing India and England as the two major away challenges for him, Labuschagne expressed his desire to perform in challenging conditions as well.
“The really good batters over generations have been very good at home. But the really great ones have done very well away. There’s probably two major challenges for an Australian batter away from home, India and England,” Labuschagne told Cricbuzz.
“Extreme swing and extreme spin are the major challenges to your batting game. So, for that, I’ve just wanted this Indian challenge. You play on some spinning wickets here and there, in Australia maybe a little bit of bounce but not as much spin, or bounce and spin, in places like Adelaide and Sydney. But never sheer spin like we faced in Galle against Sri Lanka. That was a nice stepping stone before this series. It’s just always been one that you want to test yourself,” Marnuc Labuschagne continued.
However, R Ashwin dismissed Labuschagne twice in six innings when both teams last met in Australia. Notably, this will be Labuschagne’s first Test tour of India, and he has plans for how he will deal with Ashwin, who is likely to be a key player in the four-match series, which starts on February 9 in Nagpur as well.
“We knew Ramesh Mendis the offie, but the threat here will be R Ashwin. Not only does he have a great stock ball, he has great variations, whereas Mendis had a good stock ball, but he didn’t probably have the changes like Ashwin. Nor did he have the use of the crease, the angle of the wrist, the seam angles and stuff like that. It probably comes more into your mind here because you know the bowlers,” he again shared.
“So you know Axar (Patel), (Ravindra) Jadeja and Ashwin, they are the three and maybe Kuldeep (Yadav) will be the add-on. You prepare for them. From a spin perspective, that’s always on your mind. I think that’s what makes you keep thinking because you’re like ok how am I going to attack Ashwin. This is what faced from him before. How am I going to attack Jadeja, this is what he’s bowled before,” Marnus Labuschagne concluded.
