Ashes 2023: It obviously could have been a much bigger day – Marnus Labuschagne rues batters not converting starts into big scores

Australia’s talisman batter Marnus Labuschagne feels they could have asserted more pressure on England on the opening day of the fourth Test match after finishing on 299-8. England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and decided to bowl first but the visitors failed to convert their starts into substantial scores.

Apart from Usman Khawaja, who was dismissed for only three runs by Stuart Broad, all the Australian batters got off to promising starts but none of them could go on to convert them into big scores.

Marnus Labuschagne was the joint-highest scorer for the tourists along with Mitchell Marsh as both the right-handers scored 51 each. Labuschagne scored his 16th Test fifty and his first of the ongoing Ashes but he once again could not get a big score.

“It’s one of those… we’re so close (to the urn)… we’ve just got to take it day by day. Whenever you finish a day with a three in front of it, it’s never a bad day,” Marnus Labuschagne said while talking to SEN Cricket.

“It obviously could have been a much bigger day, we had six guys get themselves in and I think whenever you do that and one of your big guns doesn’t get a big score, you’re pretty disappointed, especially when you’re talking about guys getting in the 40s and 50s, so no one has gone on to get 60 to 80 even. You add those 20 runs and all of a sudden it ekes out to close to 400 and that really puts a big dent in it,” Labuschagne continued.

Meanwhile, Australia finished the opening day at 299-8 after they were put into bat by England skipper Ben Stokes. Labuschagne reckons it is a good opening day score and feels they played well.

“I think we played really well… I probably didn’t reiterate that enough… we just didn’t go on. 300, I think that’s a really good score so far. I think there was a lot of grass on that wicket, it was quite thatchy, it was tough to score.”

Five Australian batters went past the 30-run mark on the first day’s play but none of them could bat big for the visitors. On the other hand, Chris Woakes was the pick of the bowlers for England as he returned with impressive figures of 4-52.