Australia were totally outplayed by Team India in the first Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Optus Stadium in Perth, primarily because their batters failed to absorb pressure against a rampaging Indian fast-bowling attack.
India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah ran riot at the Optus and made the Aussie batters look vulnerable to pace. The Test match ended with none of the Aussie batters going past the fifty-run mark, barring Travis Head, who scored 89 in the second innings to salvage some pride.
Criticism is mounting on the Australian batting order and their No. three, Marnus Labuschagne is at the centre of it. Labuschagne looked completely out of sorts in the first innings as he managed to score just two runs after facing 52 deliveries.
He was given a life by Virat Kohli in the slip cordon after Bumrah nicked him off, however, Labuschagne failed to make the most of the reprieve and was pinned in front of his stumps by Mohammed Siraj.
The second innings didn't bring anything different for Labuschagne as he was dismissed in the same manner but to Bumrah. Labuschagne is going through a dry spell in Test cricket as runs are proving hard to come by. He has only scored 245 runs in six Tests this year so far at a paltry average of 24.50.
The right-handed batter is experiencing a rut and therefore the former Australia Test Ricky Ponting has advised him to "take more risks" in the upcoming games.
"He was the one that looked most tentative to me out of all the batsmen in Perth,” Ponting told ICC.
“Yes, it was high-quality bowling. Yes, it was a difficult wicket to bat on. But when you're facing the best bowlers as a batsman, you have to take more risks."
However, despite the slump in form, Ponting feels that Labuschagne is a "champion" player and needs to find his way out of the crisis.
“I think you have to show faith in champion players,” Ponting said in the latest ICC Review. “A lot of the guys that we're talking about in this team have been champion players. Maybe albeit not for a little while.
"I think I read somewhere the other day that Marnus is averaging 13 since January (after Pakistan series) in Tests. So he's really got to find a way to turn it around.”
