London, June 6 Australia’s top-order batter Marnus Labuschagne is aiming to take a leaf out of England batter Joe Root’s methods of playing against spin to fetch success in Sri Lanka, where a tough spin challenge awaits him. Labuschagne will join Australia for ODI and Test series in Sri Lanka after making 11 appearances for Glamorgan in the County Championship and T20 Blast.
Root, the latest entrant to 10,000 runs club in Test cricket, had a phenomenal time in Sri Lanka at the start of 2021, amassing scores of 228 and 186 in the first innings of the matches at Galle, setting up England’s 2-0 series win.
Though Labuschagne featured in Australia’s tour of Pakistan in March 2022, the spin challenge wasn’t daunting enough to test the right-handed batter, who is aware that playing against Sri Lankan spinners will be a different ball game.
“For me, it’s my first real sub-continent challenge against spin, it’s about conquering that challenge. (England’s) Joe Root played phenomenally over there, I’ve learned a lot from how he went about his game there,” said Labuschagne to BBC Sport Wales.
“As a team, we want to be the best in the world, it doesn’t matter where you take us, we want to be winning games and I certainly think we can do that in Sri Lanka. I’ll have to get used to conditions, the heat, and sweating it out, which is something we haven’t had the last few games (in the UK).”
Though he is leaving the UK for Australia duty, Labuschagne has expressed his wish for another stint with Glamorgan ahead of Ashes next year. But with a hectic period of international cricket coming for Australia and wife Rebekah expected to give birth to their first child, it remains to be seen how Labuschagne can squeeze out time to turn out for Glamorgan in 2023.
It was through 1,114 runs scored for Glamorgan in the 2019 County Championship that Labuschagne got into Australia’s Ashes squad and fetched success with the bat as a concussion replacement for Steve Smith in Lord’s Test.
“I love playing for the club and I certainly want to continue to play for Glamorgan, but we’ll have to see how everything pans out. There are a lot of things in the mix, but I can’t see anything wrong with trying to copy the last time I played in the Ashes here and play some county cricket with Glamorgan (going) into the Ashes next summer.
“That’s our blueprint but we’ve got so much cricket this year, around 16 Tests and 18 one-day games, so we’re going to have to make sure I’m fit and healthy and also get to spend time at home with my wife and child at some stage,” concluded Labuschagne.
