LONDON: A video of Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne, who is caught peacefully sleeping in the dressing room having padded up, has gone viral on the Internet.
A video tweeted on the ICC handle shows Labuschagne padded up and stretched out on a dressing room chair. However, as opener David Warner gets dismissed in the fourth over of the innings, Labuschagne is awakened by the crowd’s noise and quickly walks out to bat at No. 3.
The batter has now revealed why he took a brief nap during Australia’s second innings of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final when he dozed off even while teammates faced a bowling barrage at The Oval.
Labuschagne decided to sit back and take a nap as teammates David Warner and Usman Khawaja looked to build on Australia’s lead, though the No.3 batter was rudely awoken and called out to the middle when Mohammed Siraj struck. The cricket.co.au posted a picture of Labuschagne deep in sleep and captioned it “Dreaming of a hundred?”
Dreaming of a hundred? #WTCFinal pic.twitter.com/jm0RSM8kyK
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) June 9, 2023
“I was just resting my eyes between balls and just relaxing,” Labuschagne quoted by ICC. “I was trying to calm my nerves a little bit, you can’t watch the game all the time, I got up there and was awake pretty soon. I didn’t have too many rests there when Siraj banged that first one in”.
As Labuschagne took guard to begin his innings, commentators on hand were heard chuckling after the vision was beamed around the world.
“Marnus Labuschagne at No.3, that is one of the more extraordinary arrivals to the crease that you will see”, Harsha Bhogle said. “Are you awake, Marnus? Have you brushed your teeth? Have you had a coffee?”
The rousing reaction by India fans served as Labuschagne’s wake-up call, according to fellow commentator, ex-Australia batter and coach, Justin Langer.
“The appeal of the crowd, there’s the alarm! Oh, I’m up and going. I will brush my teeth, a quick espresso coffee to get me going and now he’s got to face his first ball”.
Labuschagne had to be wide awake and laser-sharp in his focus with Siraj continuing on his bowling tirade. The batter was struck multiple times on the gloves, before reaching 41* at the close of play and helping Australia to a strong position ahead of day four. (ANI)