Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne was caught taking an afternoon nap on Day 3 of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 Final against India at The Oval.

The hilarious incident occurred during the fourth over of Australia’s second innings. Mohammed Siraj bowled a perfect length delivery and David Warner got a thick edge which carried through to KS Bharat behind the stumps.

While Warner was making his way back for 1, cameras caught Labuschagne taking a nap with his feet up and eyes closed in the dressing room. However, he got up quickly on hearing noise from the crowd and walked in to bat at No. 3 for Australia.

After the day’s play, Labuschagne opened up about his nap. “I was just resting my eyes between balls and just relaxing,” he told SEN Cricket.

“I was trying to calm my nerves a little bit, you can’t watch the game all the time, I got up there and was awake pretty soon,” he added.

As soon as he arrived in the middle, Labuschagne was peppered with short-pitched deliveries by the Indian pacers. In fact, the right-hander was struck multiple times on the gloves.

“I didn’t have too many rests there when Siraj banged that first one in,” Labuschagne stated.

Coming to the match, Australia were 123/4 in their second innings at the close of play on Day 3, stretching their lead to 296 runs with Marnus Labuschagne (41*) and Cameron Green (7*) unbeaten in the middle.

Earlier, Australia bundled out India for 296 to take a healthy first-innings lead of 173 runs.