Australia v India LIVE updates: Australia stares down heavy home defeat as veterans face the music
Possibly not since spinner Johnny Watkins got the yips on debut in 1973 has an Australian cricketer had as embarrassing a day as Marnus Labuschagne’s in Perth on Sunday.
A poor man’s bumper barrage, a couple of overs of leg-spin more negative than an opposition leader – at least cricketers get penalised for it – a five-ball innings for three runs to follow a 52-ball innings for two the first time around, and a fatuous review; these were all unworthy of a man who has been a good servant of his team and his country.
Marnus Labuschagne’s plight summed up that of his team in Perth.Credit: Getty Images
Labuschagne’s ignominy was Australia humiliation writ small.
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Midway through day three, Australia had let slip a Test match they had all but won halfway through day one by so far that they resorted to the tactics of a harlequin, hoping to achieve by distraction what they could not by application. Only Labuschagne’s desperate review was in character.
Australia will lose this match by hundreds of runs, and with it all their emperor’s clothes. The rest of the series will be a dogfight at best. At least it is a series this time, not a cameo.
Read Greg Baum’s full analysis here.
