London: As good as Marnus Labuschagne has been in the past few years which also culminated in him achieving the number 1 ODI rankings in Tests, his UK tour has been one which could be defined as wobbly. He had starts, looked uncertain occasionally, but has failed to score big yet.
Part of this has been blamed on his over-defensive mode of playing which Ricky Ponting believes has led to him missing out on "scoring opportunities" during Ashes 2023. At The ICC Review, Ponting while noting positive signs hinted that a big score for the right-handed batter might be around the corner and underscored Marnus' inability in previous innings to play freely.
"He played and missed a few times, but he scored more freely which is the biggest concern I had with him. It looked like he was losing a lot of his scoring options. The fact that he was able to tweak things a little bit and change things a little bit between games is a great sign for him," Ponting said.
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When asked if he had passed along any advice to the batter, he said he had a brief chat with him after the net session prior to the second Test match. "I had a really brief chat (with Marnus). I actually took my son Fletcher to training for two days in a row to watch the Aussies here at Lord's and we sat behind the nets, and I got a chance to watch Marnus and what he was working on. I actually just mentioned a few words to him through the net about a few things, but he's a very fast learner as well," Ponting added.
"He wouldn't have been happy with the way that he played in the first few innings here in the UK and he makes small adjustments all the time. I think what he did from Edgbaston to here worked for him as well. But I spoke to Pat Cummins about some of the things that I could sort of see and identify with Marnus, and hoped that Pat would maybe mention a few of those things as his own observations rather than being mine," Ponting said.
About the second Test, Australia held edge over England as they lead has extended beyond 200 runs on the rain-affected day three. Usman Khawaja has carried on his purple patch with partnerships with David Warner and Labuschagne. The latter looked comfrotable throughout his stay at the crease but lost his wicket prior to Australia reaching 130-2 with Khawaja scoring 58 and Smith to accompany him at 6 runs.
