As Marnus Labuschagne prepares for the start of the summer with the first round Sheffield Shield fixture for Queensland, the right-hand batsman says one part of his mind is consumed with the thought of how he'll go about tackling the Indian bowling attack during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The Australian has been keeping an eye on how the likes of Jasprit Bumrah & co have been doing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, preparing himself for inarguably one of the biggest challenges of his young Test career.
Read Also - India-Australia Test series set to kickstart on December 17 in Adelaide: Report
"You're subconsciously thinking about (playing India), thinking how their bowlers bowl especially now you're locked in (isolation) watching the IPL in the morning," Labuschagne was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
"Looking at how their bowlers are bowling it makes you think what they'll do, how (paceman Jasprit) Bumrah will bowl, what (quick Mohammad) Shami will do."
"Maybe it's more of a subconscious thing, so you're not necessarily thinking about it directly but it's turning over in the background, what you might do, what plans they might have for you."
Apart from six limited-overs fixtures at the start of their trip, the Indians will tussle for supremacy in a four-match Test series, part of the ongoing World Test Championship cycle.
Labuschagne, who has personally improved a lot since the last time he faced Bumrah & company in the Sydney Test of India's successful 2018-19 tour, is creating counter-plans knowing the visiting party will also come up some of their own to curtail his run-making. Something teams have failed to do since the last year's Ashes.
"It's about getting better and thinking about how they're going to attack me, what they will try to do to get me out and how I will counter that," he said.
"Fundamentally the same thing is going to work but you want to make sure there's new ideas, new plans – if that's (facing) short balls or having a few more catches on the leg side or hanging it wide on the off side – whatever their plans might be I think it's important as a cricketer that you're one step ahead and you're trying to understand what they're going to do and how they're going to attack you," Labuschagne concluded.
