Australia registered an emphatic nine-wicket victory over India in the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on Friday (March 3).
The visitors needed just 76 runs to win the match but got off to a poor start as they lost Usman Khawaja for a duck on the second ball of the day.
After that, Travis Head (49*) and Marnus Labuschagne (28*) got together to take Australia over the finishing line. Although the tourists are trailing the four-match series 1-2, they booked a place in the World Test Championship final with the third Test win.
After the game, Labuschagne shed light on what changed for Australia after the defeats in the first two Tests that they bounced back in Indore.
"We got to continue to learn and make sure the first Test, the second Test is all not the same. We need to keep learning," Labuschagne told Star Sports, before revealing an interesting chat that he had with India skipper Rohit Sharma.
"As I said to Rohit out there when we were walking. I said ‘I am watching whatever you do, I want to learn. You guys are the best in these conditions. We are foreign to these conditions’. You learn from the opposition, you learn from the way they do it. We try and learn and grow with each game," he added.
Australia were in a position of strength in the first two Tests but they threw away the advantage by committing harakiri against the Indian spinners.
Labuschagne said Australian batters were determined to trust their defence more in the third Test.
"Everyone just revisited their options, everyone just revisited their plans and their techniques. For me, personally, I have batted in 4 or 5 different ways. I have walked in, I have swept. But I think as the series went on, I didn’t not get those free shots as I did at the start of the series.
"We just said we have to trust our defence more. We are all going to get out standing, Steve got a really good ball, one that just spun and got the edge. But we needed to keep trusting our defence. Once we settle down, the game will open up," he remarked.
Labuschagne also credited Australia's success in the Indore Test to the return of left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc and a better combination that the team had.
"One thing, we learnt here is that the game is not over until it’s over here. Things happen pretty quickly, we lost 6 wickets for 11 runs. It shows you how tough it is to continue to do well here. I think as a team, as a unit, we got the right combinations.
"We got he left-arm spin, we got two off-spinners, really good ones. And we got Mitch Starc back. He got the important breakthrough of Shreyas Iyer, who looked like taking the game away from us. He provides a little bit of difference," he stated.
The fourth and final Test will be played in Ahmedabad from March 9.
