Marnus stays a step ahead

Works on India’s bowling strategy

MARNUS Labuschagne knows the Indian bowlers will be coming for him this summer, so he’s spent six months getting ready for it.

The Queensland run machine has made a rapid ascension into the elite group of international batsmen, first through his Test exploits and now in the one-day arena where he has entrenched himself in the Australian side.

Labuschagne knows that with every hundred he scores against a red or white ball, and he has five in a short time, the target on his back, and his helmet, grows.

That’s why he expects the Indians will come to the ODI and Test series “well rehearsed” in their plans to curb his growing influence.

But for every bit of research the tourists have done on Labuschagne, he’s matched that by watching the Indian bowlers at work, using his time in a winter lockdown to prepare himself for every challenge set to be thrown his way this summer.

“I would assume just like any other team that if someone was doing well we would be doing more research and trying to find out ways we can get them out, where they have been scoring runs. So they are going to come in well rehearsed,” Labuschagne said yesterday, the eve of the opening ODI clash in Sydney.

“But that’s what the last six months have been for. I’ve had the last six months to think about how they are going to bowl, what they are going to do and how I am going to play them.

“They are coming prepared, no doubt. I am coming to the series making sure I am ready for them too.”

Labuschagne said he had watched his “fair share” of the Indian Premier League in recent months, zoning in on which bowlers were in form, assessing their strengths, and working through his own way of combating them.

He showed his readiness for the summer with two big Sheffield Shield hundreds for Queensland in Adelaide, a possible entree to more against India.

He conceded he felt that pressure but said it was part and parcel of international cricket.

“I love the pressure. You need to like the pressure if you like international cricket because there is never really time you are not under pressure,” he said.