Marnus Labuschagne left himself wide open to social media trolls by showcasing an unusual technique while fixing his batting grip on the second day of the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Labuschagne, batting alongside Steve Smith late in the day’s play, was caught on camera performing some sort of running repair work on his bat and looked like he was sucking it off.
Narrating the story behind his unusual method for changing bat grip, Labuschagne told cricket.com.au after stumps on Day 2: “Look, I knew that was going to come up! My grip was wearing out and it was getting too thin so I needed to get a thicker grip on. If you blow air into the top of the grip it actually expands and pushes the grip down itself, so that’s what I was doing.
“It’s a little method I’ve found out over many grip changes. It probably didn’t look that good on camera,” he added.
Coming to the match, Australia rode on Steve Smith’s 131 and Labuschagne’s 91 to post 338 in the first innings at SCG.
In reply, India ended the second day on 96/2 with skipper Ajinkya Rahane (5*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (9*) unbeaten at the crease. Shubman Gill (50*) and Rohit Sharma (26*) were the two dismissed batsmen.
