Australia’s top-order batter Marnus Labuschagne is confident his time at playing the County Championship for Glamorgan this year will prove to be very helpful for him ahead of the World Test Championship final against India, set to happen from June 7-11 at The Oval.
Labuschagne has been in England for the last two months with an eye to acclimatise to the conditions for the WTC final and upcoming Ashes series through his stint at Glamorgan, amassing 504 runs, including two centuries.
“I have been coming back for five years now. It is just part of my normal routine of coming here. I love coming here, I love playing County cricket, I love the team at Glamorgan, I enjoy it so much otherwise I wouldn’t be coming back. It just helps that this year is a Test Championship Final and Ashes year so it is very helpful for leading into the series,” Labuschagne was quoted as saying by ICC.
Labuschagne is aiming to produce a better performance at number three in a country which gave a new lease of life to his Test career by coming over as a concussion substitute for Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019.
“Naturally, anyone that is batting No.3 for Australia is going to have responsibility. Even in 2019 (last time in England for Ashes) it was my responsibility, it was my job to score runs and if I didn’t score runs they would find someone else to do my job and I don’t think that changes. It is about finding ways to score runs and contribute to the side in as many games as I can,” he added.
Labuschagne enters the one-off clash against India at The Oval as the top-ranked Test batter. He managed only one half-century during the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India away from home as Australia lost the series 2-1.
“Two months ago we played against India, so in terms of seeing them and knowing their actions and what they do we are pretty clear on that. With the Dukes ball in their hand they are going to be able to showcase their skills a lot more,” he concluded.
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