Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne was involved in some friendly banter with former skipper Virat Kohli on Day 1 of the opening Test against India in Nagpur.
The incident in question took place during the first ball of the sixth over when the middle-order batter missed a delivery from Ravindra Jadeja which brought a smile to his face. Kohli, fielding in slip, suggested that he should shoulder his arms to the delivery. Later, Labuschagne hit a four after playing a cover drive which also earned applause from Kohli, who was looking at replays of the shot.
While happy to have earned the respect of Kohli, Labuschagne also revealed that he learned a lot from Kohli himself. “Yeah, it’s always nice when Virat thinks you have played a decent shot there. There are a few shots I definitely learned from him,” Labuschagne was quoted as saying in an interview on Sen Cricket.
At Stumps on Day 1, Australia found a breakthrough in the final overs but are still on the back foot as India trail them by 100 runs with nine wickets in hand. However, Labuschagne has faith in his team and believes that they can turn this form around. He also praised debutant Todd Murphy, who was the only Australian bowler to keep the Indians at bay, and who also took the wicket of KL Rahul.
“We are here to win the series, so we are going to make sure that we work as hard as we possibly can and fight our way back into the match by putting up a special performance with the bat... Just what I thought he was going to do. His temperament as a person gave me a lot of confidence coming into this game. His skills are high, he’s got the changes and angles. He has got the craft. He looks like a special talent and it’s nice to see him do well,” Labuschagne said.
