There are many head-to-head battles everyone’s looking forward to in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series but the one that has been talked about a little less is between two top-ranked players in their respective categories – Marnus Labuschagne and Ravichandran Ashwin. While Marnus is the ranked number one batter in Tests, Ashwin is second on the list of all-rounders in this format. Both these star cricketers have faced each other once in the past – during the 2020/21 BGT Down Under, and now this time they are up and ready for round 2.
Marnus, who made his Test debut in England a few years back, said scoring against extreme swing and spin is what makes a batter stand out from the rest. Having scored runs in the difficult batting conditions in England, the right-hander now wants to achieve the same against the spin-heavy Indian bowling attack on their shores as well. In a recent chat with Cricbuzz, Marnus said he is looking forward to this challenge.
“The really good batters over generations have been very good at home. But the really great ones have done very well away. There’s probably two major challenges for an Australian batter away from home, India and England,” Labuschagne told Cricbuzz.
Having toured Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the past year, Marnus has had the experience of facing some good spinners on dry pitches. Now ahead of his maiden away Test series in India, he knows what challenge awaits him – one that has troubled almost everyone – Ravichandran Ashwin.
Ashwin in the past has dismissed Marnus twice, but those were on the bouncy Australian pitches. On the tracks that will offer turn from day one, the Aussie batter knows what Ashwin brings to the table and how different he is from others.
“We knew Ramesh Mendis the offie, but the threat here will be R Ashwin. Not only does he have a great stock ball, he has great variations, whereas Mendis had a good stock ball, but he didn’t probably have the changes like Ashwin. Nor did he have the use of the crease, the angle of the wrist, the seam angles and stuff like that. It probably comes more into your mind here because you know the bowlers,” the ranked-number-one Test batter said.
“So you know Axar (Patel), (Ravindra) Jadeja and Ashwin, they are the three and maybe Kuldeep (Yadav) will be the add-on. You prepare for them. From a spin perspective, that’s always on your mind. I think that’s what makes you keep thinking because you’re like ok how am I going to attack Ashwin. This is what faced from him before. How am I going to attack Jadeja, this is what he’s bowled before,” Labuschagne further added.
The first of the four Test begins in Nagpur while Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad will host the remaining ones.
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