England great Mike Atherton has sung the praises of Marnus Labuschagne, with Australia’s no.3 batting beautifully before his untimely dismissal on day two.
Labuschagne has quickly established himself as one of the best Test batters on the globe with an average over 60 and continued on his merry way on Thursday.
His leaving of the ball and exemplary decision-making were on sight for all to see before his eventual dismissal to Jack Leach in the second session with 74 runs to his name.
Atherton, speaking to SEN Test Cricket during the lunch break on day 2, believes it was clear to see the “hunger” in Labuschagne’s eyes the first time he came to the batting crease.
“I am a huge admirer of Marnus Labuschagne from the moment I saw him,” Atherton said.
“I hadn’t seen much of him until he walked to the crease memorably in that Test at Lords and got felled by Jofra Archer … the way that he sprang up after that bouncer and just looked at Archer in the eye, you knew this was a guy who wanted to play desperately Test cricket desperately.
“He looks as though he’s got a hunger for the game, a hunger to score runs, and he left the ball beautifully at the start of the innings when Robinson was bowling well and getting that bounce tight around off stump.”
In fact, Atherton rates Labuschagne so high that he believes the 27-year-old could finish with a better batting average than Steve Smith.
Smith has had periods of his career that few could match and may finish his career with the second-best Australian batting average behind Don Bradman.
However, that didn’t stop Atherton from having a cheeky wager.
“I love watching him bat actually, he’s a quirky cricketer,” Atherton continued.
“He’s almost taken on some of the mannerisms of Steve Smith.
“I’ve had a quiet bet with my son at home after that 2019 summer, I had a pound with my lad that he’s going to average more than Steve Smith at the end of his career.
“We’ll see who’s right, but I just had the sense from the moment he came into the Australian side that there was a guy with a hunger for runs.”
Smith could only manage 12 runs in the first innings before being caught behind off the bowling of English quick Mark Wood.