Over the past few years where Australia cricket team has found booming victories on the cricket field especially in Test cricket, the vital cog or the mainstay of their batting has been the consistency of their middle order batter Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne who used to churn loads of runs and score hundreds at will in any given playing condition and surfaces. Steve Smith needs to play his natural game rather getting into shell.
So much is the impact of this duo of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne that the Australian unit even after loss of early wickets would be relaxed knowing that these two would churn team out of trouble with their composure and brilliant batting. The understanding between the two while forging a partnership was a treat to watch and it would be difficult for the opposition bowlers to get them out once they started out staying glued on the cricket field.
Smith and Labuschagne are arguably the backbone of Australia’s batting line-up, but have lacked the consistency they are famous for in the year 2023. While Smith averages 41.86 in 13 Tests this year, Labuschagne’s numbers amount to 37.14 in 2023. However, Labuschagne top-scored with 63 in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test to propel Australia to 318.
With many worried about their form , Australian captain Pat Cummins firmly believes in their ability to bounce back from this horrendous inconsistency and continues to be in the form they were previously used to be for Australia.
Pat Cummins confident despite Steve Smith & Marnus Labuschagne not at their best
Australian captain Pat Cummins has thrown his weight behind Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne to rediscover their best form as a lean 2023 by their standards continued in the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan. The 30-year-old believes they are putting quite a significant number of hours in the nets and runs can start flowing again.
Speaking after day 2 of the Boxing Day Test, Cummins admitted that wickets haven’t been the best to bat on in the last few years, but backs the decorated pair to adapt and dominate again. As quoted by Perth Now, he stated:
“I mean, when they were averaging 60 each year, you thought, ‘Oh, well that’s going to be an outlier’, and four or five years later, we’re all kind of in awe that they’ve kept up that standard. The batters, it wasn’t long ago we had one, two, three-ranked in the world and they were right up there,”
So I wouldn’t be surprised if they start averaging 60 or 70, but we’ve toured India this year, some of the wickets in Australia haven’t been like they were five or six years ago either. You see the hours they put in in the nets, they’re still hitting it as well as they ever have, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they start churning out hundreds all the time,” he added.
Steve Smith has had scores of 31, 45, and 26 in the series against Pakistan, getting off to promising starts, but failing to convert it into big hundreds.