‘Our job is to perform on the field’ - Marnus Labuschagne responds to Stuart Broad’s ‘void Ashes’ comments

As Australia gears up to take on England in the Ashes series, both sides will be keen on staying at the top of their games ahead of the much-anticipated series. England would look to reclaim the iconic urn after facing a 4-0 defeat last time.

Talking about their humiliating defeat in 2021, veteran English pacer Stuart Broad labelled Australia’s brilliant win in the Ashes as null and void. The 36-year-old captured every headline after he stated that Australia’s 4-0 win did not count given the restrictions of the COVID-19.

Broad suggested that since the players spent the majority of the time in a bubble, the playing conditions were not suitable. However, seeing the pacer’s comments, star Australian all-rounder Marnus Labuschagne was quick to respond. The 28-year-old opined that the duty of players is to perform on the pitch, no matter the external conditions.

"It's a series, and Australia, we dominated that series, take everything out of it, our job is to perform on the field. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are externally. And we did that. Hopefully we can continue to do that this series," Marnus Labuschagne was quoted as saying by The West Australian. 

The back-to-back games really help: Labuschagne

Furthermore, Marnus Labuschagne also reflected on how constantly playing county cricket helped him prepare better for the matches and even stated that it helps one get into rhythm. He compared the on the field time with the training sessions. Labuschagne believes that during training batters mostly ponder over the technical side and adjustments of their game.

"The back-to-back games really help, playing a lot of (county) cricket with not much break in between,you get rhythm and feel and (are) able to learn from games, rather than stewing over technical things or changes that you start at training," he said.

In Australia we might have a week-and-a-half or even more between games. You go back to training and you might have got out a certain way and you start tinkering. You come to England, you know you play Thursday to Sunday for seven weeks straight. If you miss out a game, you just stick to the same process. It creates good habits of scoring runs," Labuschagne added.