The star batsman of the Australian national cricket team Marnus Labushagne and a young athlete of the Indian national cricket team Harshit Rano on Friday, December 6, engaged in a heated verbal exchange.
The incident between Marnus Labuschagne and Harshit Rana took place during the second Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Adelaide Oval.
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Harshit Rana and Marnus Labuschagne exchange words in Adelaide
Captain Rohit Sharma Harshit brought the 22-year-old Rana back into the attack for a brief spell in the 26th over as the Indian national cricket team struggled to pick wickets.
Rana, despite being at his best, was not very precise with his lines and lengths. However, on the first ball of the 28th over, he gave Australia a scare when he hit Nathan McSweeney on the side.
At a full speed of 143.5 km/h, he hit McSweeney, who beat the batsman’s defense on the inside edge and hit his front leg. Referee Richard Illingworth dismissed the appeal.
But Rana forced his captain to use the review and send the decision up. The tracking of the ball showed that there was a lot of movement and the ball was missing the stumps and India lost the review.
Meanwhile, in the 30th round, Harshit Rana was involved in a verbal spat with Marnus Labuschagne. On the second ball, Rana hit 140.7 km/h and Labuschagne contemplated a strike before getting out at the last moment.
Just after the delivery, the batsman and the bowler were seen exchanging words, with the Australian batsman doing most of the talking. It didn’t stop there as in the very next ball, the pacer hit the bat after bowling a 141km/h length ball.
Watch the incident between Rana and Labushagne here:
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In total, Harshit Rana bowled 8 overs on Day 1 and he scored 18 runs while remaining scoreless.
Marnus Labuschagne remains unbeaten at the end of Day 1
Labuschagne has been through a lean patch in Test cricket and was under pressure heading into the Adelaide Test. There was talk in the Australian media that he was set to be sacked if he failed the Adelaide Test.
The 30-year-old failed in the first innings of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth as he was dismissed for 2 off 52 balls. Jasprit Bumra delivery and dismissed for 3 runs.
Entering the second Test match, Labuschagne had scored just 123 runs in his last 10 innings, with 90 of them coming in an innings against New Zealand.
However, he took confidence from his past heroics at the Adelaide Oval as he averaged 71.75 on the field and batted very well in the pink-ball Test against India.
Showed a good shot in the tackle and did not just try to protect the balls. He smashed 3 fours and remained unbeaten on stumps (20 runs off 67 balls) on Day 1 of the second Test.
