Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne reacts after playing a shot during play on the day four of the fourth cricket test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Having weathered the Jasprit Bumrah storm besides drawing cheer from the Australian lower-order, Marnus Labuschagne seemed a contented man at the Melbourne Cricket Ground here on Sunday. The batter’s 70 and his 57-run seventh-wicket partnership with skipper Pat Cummins revived the host’s second innings in the fourth Test.

A sense of relief was obvious when Labuschagne spoke to the media: “As the game has gone on, the bounce has got less, and more inconsistent. The way India bowled and put us under pressure, it was like let’s get as many runs as we can. That’s obviously creeping into a nice total but there was a time when it could have been, 250, 270, or even less. We navigated well and the lower-order deserves credit. We need to back ourselves and trust that, we are going to bowl India out.”

Dealing with the inevitable Jasprit Bumrah question, Labuschagne replied: “Bumrah’s bowling in every game has been pretty good. He is relentless and attacks with that perpendicular angle. He is tough. He has been very good in this series.”

Looking at his captain’s role, Labuschagne said: “Pat was amazing. He took the game on. He just finds a way when the team needs him to scrap. I just told him that I will take on Bumrah and we kind of stuck to that process.”

Sam Konstas and his refreshing knock on debut has inspired Labuschagne: “Watching Sam bat and just the way he went about it, I was sitting there with Steve (Smith) and I was saying, we have really got to have a look at how we are going about it because this looks way more fun. It made me think about what’s my best method rather than thinking about technical things. And yeah, it’s good to be scoring runs.”