One of Australia’s best performers in test match cricket in recent times and currently the no. 1 batsman in the world, Marnus Labuschagne, has said that he still likes to watch the old videos of the former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar.
Calling the master blaster’s technique “unbelievable” in response to a question on Twitter, Labuschagne revealed he tries to learn from the way Sachin batted in different conditions around the world and scored so many runs.
Marnus Labuschagne never played cricket with Tendulkar because he made his test debut for Australia in 2018 and Tendulkar already retired from international cricket in 2013 with his last test match against West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium.
Labuschagne, however, must have watched a lot of Tendulkar’s batting while growing up, particularly the way Tendulkar played in Australia and South Africa. These two countries are considered the toughest to bat for the subcontinent batsmen because of the bouncy pitches, but Tendulkar scored 11 out of his 51 test centuries in Australia and South Africa.
As far as Marnus Labuschagne is concerned, he has himself made a great start to his test career and has climbed to the first position in the ICC rankings in a very short span of time, but he has played the majority of his test cricket in Australia itself. His biggest challenge will be when he travels to Pakistan later this year and then to India next year because these two countries will dish out surfaces that will be low and will also assist spin.
In Australia, the biggest challenge for the batsmen is pace and bounce, but the challenge will be entirely different in the subcontinent and that’s why, to be rated as a test match cricketer, it’s so important to score runs everywhere as the challenges are different in different countries.
One of the features of the great test match career of Sachin Tendulkar was the fact that he had a superb record all around the world and not just in particular conditions. He scored runs against spin at home, on bouncy pitches in Australia and South Africa and on seaming pitches in England and New Zealand as well.
still love watching old footage of @sachin_rt bat now. unbelievable technique, so much to learn from how he played the game.
Advertisement— Marnus Labuschagne (@marnus3cricket) February 4, 2022
If Labuschagne idolises Tendulkar, he would also like to make sure that he scores runs in abundance in all conditions, rather than just having an extraordinary record at home. Scoring heavily in Pakistan, if he is able to so, will enhance Labuschagne’s reputation as a test match batsman massively.
