Leading batsman of the Australian National Cricket Team Marnus Labuschagne and the junior captain of the Indian National Cricket Team Rana Harshit engaged in an intense verbal exchange on Friday, December 6.
The incident between Marnus Labuschagne and Harshit Rana took place during the second Test of the 2024-25 Frontier-Gavaskar Trophy at the Adelaide Oval.
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Harshit Rana and Marnus Labuschagne exchange words in Adelaide
Captain Rohit Sharma 22-year-old Harshit Rana brought a brief 26th century back into the attack as the Indian National Cricket Team struggled to pick wickets.
Rana did not look his best in the innings and was not very accurate 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 pads.
He bowled a full 143.5kph delivery to McSweeney who beat the batter's defense on the inside edge and hit it on the front pad. The on-field umpire, Richard Illingworth, rejected the appeal.
However, Rana urged his captain to use the review and send the decision upstairs. Ball tracking showed that there was a lot of movement and the ball would have missed the stumps and India lost the review.
Meanwhile, in the 30th century, Harshit Rana was involved in a verbal conflict with Marnus Labuschagne. On the second ball of the over, Rana bowled a 140.7kph bouncer and Labuschagne considered playing a shot before pulling out at the last minute.
Immediately after the delivery, the batsman and bowler were seen exchanging words, with the Australian batsman doing most of the talking. He didn't stop there because on the next ball, the pacer shot a few words to the bat after bowling a good 141kph ball.
Watch the incident between Rana and Labuschagne here:
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In all, Harshit Rana bowled 8 overs on Day 1 and conceded 18 runs while remaining wicketless.
Marnus Labuschagne remains unbeaten at the end of day 1
Labuschagne has been going through a rough patch in Test cricket and was under pressure going into the Adelaide Test. There were talks in the Australian media that he was ready to retire if he went ahead in the Adelaide Test.
The 30-year-old failed miserably in the first innings of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener in Perth as he was dismissed for 52-ball 2. Also, in the second innings, he added arms to a Jasprit Bumrah delivery and was dismissed for 3 runs.
Going into the second Test match, Labuschagne had scored just 123 runs in his last 10 Test innings with 90 of those coming in one innings against New Zealand.
However, he took encouragement from his former heroes at the Adelaide Oval as he averaged 71.75 at the center and batted well in the pink-ball Test against India.
The batter showed some stroke play and wasn't just trying to protect the balls. He smashed 3 fours on Day 1 of the second Test and remained unbeaten at stumps (20 runs off 67 balls).
