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Tuesday March 19, 2024

‘Warner’s Ashes struggles will make him a better player’

By AFP
September 21, 2019

SYDNEY: Australia opener David Warner endured a torrid time throughout the Ashes, but Marnus Labuschagne expects him to come back stronger.

In 10 Ashes innings, Warner managed just 95 runs – the lowest returns for an opener in a series of five matches or more. 61 off his runs came in one innings at Headingley, when he looked like he was breaking the shackles of poor form, only for Stuart Broad and Jofra Archer to pin him down again.

Labsuchagne, who was Australia’s second-highest run-getter in the series after Steve Smith, backed Warner to learn from the experience and bounce back a better cricketer. He also revealed that the 32-year-old was a great influence on him and other youngsters on the touring party. “It was the first time I got to know Dave and I loved spending time with him,” Labuschagne was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“The way he conducted himself the whole tour, being under pressure and obviously he didn’t score runs he would like (but) the way he helped the guys around like myself and the other younger guys, talking about the game and about batting and just his whole demeanour was really great.

“It’s a real credit to him. It was a very tough series for him personally but you look back and we won’t know until end of our summer but I think that’s going to make him a better player. The way he conducted himself around the group was just awesome.”

Labuschagne was thrown into the Ashes battle quite suddenly, as he was named Smith’s concussion substitute during the second Test at Lord’s. Labushchagne didn’t look back from there, scoring four fifties in seven innings to accumulate 353 runs at 50.42.

While the 25-year-old seems like a lock-in for Australia’s next Test assignment – a home series against Pakistan, he isn’t getting carried away and remains focused on scoring runs in domestic competitions.

“Obviously I want that spot but at the end of the day, my job is to just keep scoring runs,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what game it is, whether it’s this Sunday in the Marsh Cup, or the first (Marsh Sheffield) Shield game.

“You’ve just got to keep your focus that small because if you get too far ahead that’s when you start putting unnecessary pressure on yourself, and you find yourself missing out in a game and find yourself starting to think about it too much.