"I got back to doing....": Australia's Labuschagne after return-to-form fifty against India at Adelaide

Adelaide [Australia], December 8 : Following his side's 10-wicket win over India in the second Test, Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne, who smashed a return-to-form half-century after a string of poor scores, said that he got back to doing "what he knew best" and looked at footage wherever he felt he was falling short.
Aussies continued their pink-ball domination as brilliant performances from centurion Travis Head and pacers Mitchell Starc and skipper Pat Cummins helped them crush India by 10 wickets to level the five-match series 1-1. In the match, Labuschagne struck a fine 64, marking his return to form and smashing his second half-century in last 11 innings.
Talking after the post-match, Labuschagne said, "It is nice to be in the runs and help the team. There's a lot of talk during the week, I got back to doing what I know the best that is hitting lots and lots of cricket balls, looking at the footage where I felt like I was falling short."
"The selection policy and selection process with this team is very consistent. For me, it was about staying true to myself, true to how I got here as a player. Spent hours thinking about it, spoke to different people and I was able to find my feet in the innings," he added.
Labuschagne said that it would be nice to play the third Test at Brisbane from December 14 onwards. "Last week, we lost the Test match and we were apparently the worst Test team ever. This week, we finished on day three. It is nice that there's so much talk about the game," he concluded.
This year in seven matches and 13 innings, Labuschagne has scored 309 runs at an average of 28.09, with four fifties and best score of 90. In ICC World Test Championship 2023-25, Labuschagne has scored 722 runs at an average of 28.88, with a century and six fifties. His best score of 111, came against Australia last year in Ashes, more than an year back.
Coming to the match, India won the toss and opted to bat first. However, they had to face the wrath of a moving, erratic pink-ball and its mastermind, Mitchell Starc (6/48). Except for a 69-run stand for the second wicket between KL Rahul (37 in 64 balls with six fours) and Shubman Gill (31 in 51 balls, with five fours) and a fighting 42 in 54 balls (three fours and three sixes) from Nitish Kumar Reddy, there was not much highlights from India who were skittled out for 180 runs. Skipper Cummins and Scott Boland also took two wickets.
In the first innings, a 67-run partnership between Nathan McSweeney (39 in 109 balls, with six fours) and Marnus Labuschagne (64 in 126 balls, with nine fours) for second wicket set the platform for Travis Head to impose his domination over Indian bowlers yet again with a counter-attacking 140 in 141 balls, with 17 fours and four sixes, just when Aussies lost some regular wickets. His century took Australia to 337 runs and gave them a 157-run lead.
Jasprit Bumrah (4/61) and Mohammed Siraj (4/98) were top bowlers for India. Ravichandran and Nitish got a wicket each.
In their second innings, India appeared even more toothless as the star-studded top-order and middle-order returned back to pavillion despite starts from Jaiswal (24 in 31 balls, with four boundaries), Gill (28 in 30 balls, with three fours) while KL Rahul (7) and Virat Kohli (11 in 21 balls with a four) failed to score well. India ended day two at 128/5.
On the third day, Pant also lost his wicket for 28 in 31 balls, with five fours. From there on, it was not looking back for Aussies, who skittled out India for 175 runs in 36.5 overs. India lead by just 18 runs, setting Aussies 19 runs to win.
Skipper Cummins (5/67) took a majestic five-wicket haul, his eighth as a captain. Boland took 3/51 while Starc took 2/60.
Set a target of 19 runs, Khawaja (10*) and McSweeney (9*) chased it down without breaking a sweat in 3.2 overs.