In the 74th over of Australia’s innings on Day 1 of the Perth Test, Marnus Labuschagne danced down the track to launch New Zealand all-rounder Mitchell Santner for a six over the long-on to raise his third successive Test hundred. Interestingly, It was only the second six of Labuschagne’s 12-match Test career, where he has scored 1020 runs thus far.
Labuschagne, who will probably be always known as the concussion substitute for Steve Smith, now has scores of 185, 162 and 110-not out in his last three Test innings. He is now also only the third Australian batsman to attain such a feat after Charles Macartney in 1926 and Don Bradman in 1937-38.
Labuschagne started the season ranked as low as 110 in the ICC Test rankings for batsman but the 25-year old, with is phenomenal art of scoring runs, is now ranked 8th on the list.
The Australian’s career took a dramatic turn when he came into his side’s playing XI after an in-form Steve Smith was hit on the helmet by a Jofra Archer bouncer during the Lord’s Test of the Ashes series to make Labuschagne the first-ever concussion substitute in the Test cricket.
Coming in place for Smith, Labuschagne made a crucial contribution of 59 runs that earned him a place in the side even after Smith’s return. Labuschagne went on to score 74, 80, 67, 11, 48 and 14 in his first Ashes series to become an integral part of Australia’s batting unit.
At Perth Stadium, at Perth Stadium, Labuschagne and Travis Head were unbeaten on 110 and 20 runs respectively to help Australia grind out 248-4 against New Zealand on the opening Day.
