Did you see… Labuschagne MAKE KOHLI PAY

2 minute read

After yet again failing with the bat, Virat Kohli dropped Marnus Labuschagne second ball. Oh how Australia’s number three made him pay.

Kohli’s aspiration to bat like John Crawley grows ever larger. Today he made five (two singles and a three, for what it’s worth) before playing a tentative, back foot, angled-bat, defensive prod/withdrawal to Josh Hazlewood.

Some say Kohli’s lost his edge, but as far as we can make out, he’s actually using it more frequently than ever before.

Kohli wasn’t the only one to struggle though and India were soon all out for a pretty miserable 150. Enter Jasprit Bumrah and then not too long after that – directly as a consequence of his entry – enter Marnus Labuschagne too…

“I think the way we play, we’re at our best when we’re playing the long game,” said Labuschagne earlier in the week. “We understand that getting them back for their second and third spells, putting them under pressure and letting them come to us and us putting pressure back on them through overs in the field and time in the game – especially over a five-Test series – that’s really important.”

Thus far, you’d have to say ‘mission failed’. Never mind second and third spells, one of India’s seamers is yet to begin his first.

Facing his second ball (which is further than Steve Smith got), Labuschagne edged to Kohli, who got the wrong parts of his hands to it and dropped it.

Not that his team-mates noticed.

Oh how Labuschagne made Kohli – and all of us – suffer for that miss.

The innings lasted for 95 minutes – a borderline colossal effort in the context of this first day – during which Labuschagne scored all of two runs. He pulled his 24th delivery for one and then added his second and final run about an hour later when he inexplicably decided to work a short one to long leg rather than leaving it alone.

Labuschagne certainly has form in this area, but to give him his due, he arguably only had two options when facing Jasprit Bumrah bowling like he was:

1. Bat for 95 minutes without troubling the scorers
2. Depart the field of play immediately without troubling the scorers

Labuschagne will think he made the right choice, but it didn’t look much fun.

He then took the wholly unnecessary option of losing his wicket to a bowler who wasn’t Jasprit Bumrah. No idea what that was all about.