Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar applauded Australia's Marnus Labuschagne and said like all great batsmen he rode the bad times and cashed in whenever he got the opportunity.
Australia’s no.3 Marnus Labuschagne starred for the hosts as the former hit his 5th Test-match century on the first day of the fourth Test-match at Gabba, Brisbane.
Although Marnus Labuschagne had all the luck favoring him as he was dropped twice first by Ajinkya Rahane, on 37 off Navdeep Saini, and then later on 48 by Cheteshwar Pujara, the former carved his way through and scored a gritty century to put Australia in a good position on his home ground.
Labuschagne, 33, built key partnerships with Steve Smith (70 runs) and then with Mathew Wade (113 runs).
Indian batting legend, Sunil Gavaskar, praised Marnus Labuschagne and said that he looked better in the post-lunch session.
“I think before lunch his (Labuschagne) body shape was a little bit tense, he wasn’t quite moving in into the drive, or even when he was looking to play the defensive shot, he was not quite balanced.
But after lunch, he was looking a lot better, standing up and driving well on this surface. Because on this surface, you really cannot drive, because of the extra bounce, and he looked good,” said Sunil Gavaskar on the Sony network.
Sunil Gavaskar, 71, further applauded Labuschagne saying like all great batsmen, he rode the bad times and cashed in whenever he got the opportunity.
“And like all good batsmen if they get an opportunity of a missed catch or if they are playing and missing, he rode the bad times, waited for good times to come, and then he cashed in. He deserved a hundred because he missed out twice before,” he said.
Gavaskar also lauded the young Indian pace attack that has a cumulative experience of four Tests and said that they were committed to the job.
“I just think the Indian (bowling) attack did wonderfully well. It is such an inexperienced attack with Shardul Thakur hardly bowling a dozen deliveries in the previous Test that he has played. Navdeep Saini a couple of Tests matches old, and so is Mohammed Siraj.
“Natarajan playing his first Test, Sundar playing his first Test. The first five wickets that they have taken shows you how committed they were to the job,” said Sunil Gavaskar.
Commenting on Day 1 of the Brisbane Test Gavaskar said that Australia has a slight edge over India
“It would be 50.5 to Australia and 49.5 to India. If India had taken a wicket or two with the second new ball, then it would have been completely different, then you could have said that the day was India’s. India definitely till tea time were controlling the game. This partnership between Paine and Green can be the difference in the game,” he said.
At stumps, the hosts were 274/5 with Tim Paine(38*) and Cameron Green(28*) adding 61* runs for their partnership. Debutant T Natarajan (2/63) was the pick of the bowlers, while Siraj, Shardul, and Washington Sundar were the other wicket-takers.
(Sony network Inputs)
