Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne believes that England's star batter Joe Root playing aggressive 'Bazball' cricket actually helps their opponents to stay in the game in a massive claim ahead of the second Ashes Test of the series at Lord's, which starts on Wednesday, June 28.
Root began his Ashes campaign with an unbeaten 118 in the first innings and a 46 in the second innings although it turned out to fall too short as Australia won the first match in Edgbaston by two wickets.
Labuschagne is of the opinion that the England batter's reckless dismissal in the second innings of the first Test was what took Australia to the win. With Bazball, and with the way Root was batting, it kept the visiting rivals in the hunt, according to Labuschagne. The Australian batter also claimed that the way England were using Bazball against Australia was actually working to Australia's benefit for them and brought them opportunities.
"From my perspective, him playing that method and those shots are keeping us in the game," Labuschagne told The Sydney Morning Herald.
"I use that second innings as an example. He probably had an opportunity to shut us out and take the game away from us completely. But the method and the way he was playing kept us in the game and, evidently, he played an unbelievable innings, but he ended up getting 40 [46] and if he turns that 40 into 80-plus, we're chasing 300 and that's going to be a pretty big effort."
"So I think that's the benefit for us, the way they're playing. They're playing aggressive cricket, and he's doing it with a different method, which is great, but it brings in other opportunities for us. Hopefully, at some point in the series, that will keep paying off."
With Root going strong, skipper Ben Stokes decided to declare with the score reading 393 for 8.
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