Labuschagne grinds New Zealand on attritional day

Just around three months ago, Steven Smith and Jofra Archer were involved in a titanic battle in the Ashes at Lord's. Archer won that round of battle by clonking Smith with a brute of a short delivery. However, Smith not taking strike in the second innings of the Test due to the blow opened up the floodgates for the concussion substitute Marnus Labuschagne to showcase his talents. It didn't exactly start on a good note for the promising batsman, as he received a nasty blow via another rocket of a short ball from Archer. Labuschagne, though, gave a glimpse of his temperament by wading through the pacer's testing spell and scoring a crucial fifty.

Since then, the promising batsman has slowly but steadily taken his game to a different level. In the ongoing home summer, he has been in prime form, composing Test hundreds. On Day 1 of the Perth Test versus New Zealand, he compiled his third successive Test century to put Australia in a position of strength at stumps.