Having successfully established himself as the mainstay of Australian red-ball batsman, Marnus Labuschagne is now aiming at translating his superb form into white-ball cricket. He is a part of the Australian squad flying to India for a three- ODI match whirlwind tour starting from January 14. Labuschagne has the chance to prove his white-ball credentials as he will be making his ODI debut against India and the team management is backing the 25-year-old batsman.

With his fabulous form in the Test cricket, Labuschagne rocketed up to third in the ICC Test batting rankings. He has scored a record 896 runs across five Test matches at home this summer. But debut in Indian conditions will not be a cakewalk for Labuschagne as Virat Kohli’s side looks lethal in their home conditions.

Talking about Labuschagne’s challenge, skipper Aaron Finch said, “We know that he’s not going to be overawed by the occasion. He’s come back into Test cricket after missing out at the start of the Ashes and he’s been unbelievable, so hopefully, he can continue that. The form that he showed in the (Marsh Cup) one-day games was outstanding.”

“Playing on some slower wickets that spin quite a bit, to be able to come in and do that role really well for Queensland is obviously what’s got him a place in the side, as well as his current form. I don’t see why it wouldn’t translate,” Finch said before leaving for India on Wednesday.

India Squad: Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Rishabh Pant (wk, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami.

Australia Squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Schedule:
First ODI: January 14, Mumbai (D/N)
Second ODI: January 17, Rajkot (D/N)
Third ODI: January 19, Bengaluru (D/N)