With Australia under tremendous pressure to make a comeback in the five-Test series, some of the squad’s key players, including Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, and Travis Head, hit the nets on Monday, at the Adelaide Oval, to prepare for the upcoming Day-Night Test, starting on December 6.
With not many runs under their belt, particularly from the Perth Test, Khawaja, Smith, and Labuschagne spent over 90 minutes at the nets, mostly facing throwdowns with the shiny pink ball. The throwdown specialists and head coach Andrew McDonald didn’t go easy on the batters, producing a variety of deliveries to test the Aussies.
Labuschagne, who has witnessed a slump in form in the longest format, was particularly focused on improving. The Australian batter, once ranked number one in the men’s Test batting rankings, has averaged only 13.66 in his last five Tests; since scoring two half-centuries against Pakistan in early January.
However, he might draw inspiration from his impressive average of 71.75 over nine innings at the Adelaide Oval, which includes three centuries and one fifty. Besides facing throwdowns, Labuschagne also took on Brendan Doggett in an extensive session. After scoring only 2 and 3 in the Perth Test, Labuschagne’s intent and form have been under scrutiny. However, during the nets, the middle-order batter was seen playing with much better intent, though he struggled at times with seaming deliveries, being beaten and even bowled a few times.
Meanwhile, Smith and Khawaja appeared to be in good touch, aiming to lead the Australian batting unit after a disappointing performance in Perth. Smith, with his characteristic mannerisms and unorthodox stance, focused on leaving the balls but was not hesitant to drive or pull when the opportunity arose. After being beaten and dismissed a couple of times, Smith showed signs of irritation, even trying to smash the stumps with his bat, but quickly regained his composure to continue batting.
Khawaja was the most dominant, alongside Travis Head. The duo’s sessions mostly centered around playing their natural strokes. Khawaja excelled with pulls, cuts, and several straight drives that found the middle of his blade. Travis Head, on the other hand, played aggressively in his typical style. Nathan McSweeney was also seen with Alex Carey, and it will be fascinating to see how the Australians, as a unit, respond in Adelaide.
“(The other batters) are not coming to me for batting tips, that’s for sure. Everyone goes about it in different ways … we’re all supporting each other … we’ll have a chat over the next three or four days,” Head commented in Adelaide on Monday.
“This team has dealt with adversity well,” Head added. “The small amount that we have had in the last three or four years, we’ve played well. We’ve faced some challenging times and a couple of challenging Tests last year that we managed to overcome… It’s a well-balanced group that knows its direction.
“We didn’t have a very good week. That’s fine. But we have four more opportunities to turn it around; we will press on as we do, as we have for the last few years. As a team, we’ve been strong for a period – we had a bad week. Over the last couple of years, there were many teams that lost the first Test or were down in the series and managed to come back and play really well,” he concluded.
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