'Not convinced with him' - David Warner on Marnus Labuschagne's Adelaide performance

Australia’s batting woes continued in the second Test at the Adelaide Oval against India. Though they won the game convincingly by 10 wickets, their first innings was heavily relied on Travis Head’s 140 and Marnus Labuschagne’s 64. Other than these two, none of the Australia batters could contribute substantially with the bat. 

Speaking of their veteran opener Usman Khwaja, he has scored just 34 runs two games so far while Steve Smith has scored 19 runs in three innings across two games. Despite the duo's run drought, David Warner has stated that he is not convinced with Labuschagne's form and backed Khawaja and Smith to come good in the upcoming games.

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“I’m still not convinced with Marnus. I don’t think that was anywhere near what we know he’s capable of,” Warner told the Herald Sun.

“Steve of late, I think a lot of teams have been bowling at his pads and down leg side. So I think from that perspective they’re trying to shut his scoring down quite a bit. Uz, exactly the same. He’s had a great 12 months before. But then of late he hasn’t scored as many runs as he would have liked, but same thing, you’ve just got to go out there and still present the same attitude, the same at training, keep working hard,” he added. 

India bowled poorly at Marnus Labuschagne: Warner

After coming up with scores of two and three in the first Test, Labuschagne’s 64 in Adelaide aided the team well. Despite these efforts, Warner stated that the rough edges were evident and the knock came to fruition only because Indians bowled at him poorly. 

“He might have got a couple out of the middle, got a couple of freebies, batted well that night to get through but they bowled poorly. So from that perspective, he had the best conditions to come out and bat in. But he got out the same way he always does get out when he gets over 50, hits it straight to gully,” Warner concluded.