Labuschagne shatters county record with double hundred

Marnus Labuschagne has hammered 276 from just 268 balls in a second XI match for Glamorgan in the UK, smashing a county record in the process.

The world's No.3 ranked Test batsman was unavailable for Glamorgan's County Championship match against Sussex, which started on Sunday, as he was still in isolation as a close contact of teammate Nick Selman, who recently tested positive to COVID-19.

But with Glamorgan's second XI game against Northamptonshire starting on Monday, less than 12 hours after Labuschagne was released from isolation, he was instead picked to make his return in the twos.

And his class shone through against the second-string opposition as he slammed 276, the highest score ever by a Glamorgan batsman in the second XI competition.

He hammered 32 fours and four sixes as Glamorgan posted 490 in their first innings.

The right-hander's innings came after he picked up 3-35 with the ball on the opening day.

Queensland and Australia teammate Michael Neser, who was also isolating having been deemed a close contact of Selman, was not picked for the second XI game.

While Labuschagne has been prolific in T20 cricket this northern summer, he's not been at his absolute best in the longer format and has averaged just 25 in the County Championship.

It was announced last week that he will return to Australia later this month, earlier than expected, to spend time with his family ahead of a busy home summer that will be highlighted by the Ashes against England.

Labuschagne was not picked for Australia's current tour of the West Indies due to the logistical complications of him entering the national team's bio-secure bubble from the UK.

It was instead decided that he would stay with Glamorgan to play the full round robin stage of the T20 Blast as well as a handful of games in the first-class and one-day formats.

"I know the initial plans were for Marnus to stay there (in the UK) to continue to play first-class cricket and have the opportunity to potentially play 14 T20 games and a handful of one-day games as well," Australia's skipper Aaron Finch said recently.

"I think that was decided it would be really beneficial for his development in the two shorter formats of the game. To miss that huge amount of cricket (by travelling to the Caribbean), especially in the T20 space where we've seen him develop so quickly (and instead) to be able to get 14 (T20) games extra when he potentially could have came here and sat on the bench for 10 games (was beneficial).

"The ability for Marnus to keep playing, keep developing, keep experimenting with his T20 game in particular – that was the reasoning behind that."

Elsewhere in the UK overnight, Western Australian Josh Inglis was dismissed for 27 on his first-class debut for Leicestershire after fellow Australian, Marcus Harris, had made 21 for their Foxes in their match against Somerset.

All the scores from the County Championship

Inglis, who scored a century in the T20 Blast last month, will soon join Shane Warne's London Spirit side for the inaugural season of The Hundred having taken the place of countryman Glenn Maxwell.

In Hove, Travis Head (47 and 5) remains without a half-century this season for Sussex as most batsmen struggled in a low-scoring County Championship match against Glamorgan, who are without Labuschagne and Neser.

Middlesex's Peter Handscomb (21 from 41 balls) and Durham's Cameron Bancroft (34 from 102) were also unable to build on solid starts to their respective innings, while Dan Worrall picked up 2-26 for Gloucestershire.

Eleven players had to be removed from their respective County Championship matches on Tuesday after England were forced to pick an entirely new ODI squad for their series against Pakistan following an outbreak of COVID-19 in the camp.

Among the players to be withdrawn was Nottinghamshire left-hander Ben Duckett, who was 69 not out at stumps on day two but was not able to complete his innings as he instead joined the England squad ahead of the first ODI on Thursday.