Marnus Labuschagne reveals text exchange with Cameron Green to play down injury scare
Marnus Labuschagne has revealed the details of a text exchange with Cameron Green in which he ruled out the possibility of being replaced in the playing XI despite suffering an injury scare during the third day of the Australia-Pakistan Test in Perth.
Labuschagne suffered a vicious blow on his right hand off a ball from Pakistan debutant Khurram Shahzad. He writhed in pain and required medical assistance before top-edging the quick to be out for two.
With Labuschagne rushing to the hospital for scans, Green, who lost his place in the playing XI to Western Australian teammate Mitchell Marsh, asked about the former’s well-being via text.
“Greeny messaged me on the way to getting a scan, and he just said, ‘I hope it all goes well, good luck’, and I said, ‘it won’t make a difference, mate,’” Labuschagne quipped after the match.
Ouch! Marnus Labuschagne cops a nasty one on the hand and is getting some treatment out in the middle #AUSvPAK pic.twitter.com/UMHmIgHjuF
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 16, 2023
“That’s happened so many times when I’ve been on the bench, so it’s going to have to take something pretty serious, I reckon, to have me miss.”
Australia’s No.3 confirmed that nothing serious came out from his scans and he is all set to feature in the next match at MCG: “The finger’s fine; there is no break. It hit me more on the knuckle side and sort of just jammed up my hand. I was a little nervous out there because I haven’t had too many. I’ve had a lot of finger blows, but it felt a bit different. Overnight, it was a little bit sore, but the morning was fine, and I had a hit. I’ve got really good range in it, so all good.”
Labuschagne was not the only player who copped a body blow on the deteriorating Perth wicket as Marsh, Steve Smith, and Usman Khawaja took hits too. Pakistan were clueless in front of Australia’s pace cartel and were all-out for 89 runs in the second innings to hand the hosts a massive 360-run win.
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