Labuschagne's T20 hot streak continues in UK

Marnus Labuschagne has continued his T20 run-scoring spree in England with a third successive fifty as he tops the competition's run-scoring charts.

Labuschagne struck 74 against Surrey at The Oval but his Glamorgan side fell to a five-wicket defeat as England and Perth Scorchers opener Jason Roy launched a blistering 64 off 35 balls in the hosts' run-chase.

The Queenslander scored 17 from his first 22 balls on a slow pitch, but then added 57 off his next 29.

He now has scores of 93 not out, 59 and 74 in his three T20 Blast innings for 226 runs at a strike rate of 146.75.

With Glamorgan to play again on Wednesday night, Labuschagne is a very real chance of, in just four matches, overhauling the 273 runs his entire T20 career had yielded in 16 matches before this tournament.

Labuschagne also claimed two wickets with his leg-spin against Surrey, including that of Roy, and now has four scalps from his nine overs in the competition at an economy rate of 7.33.

He has made no secret of his desire to push for a spot in Australia's T20 World Cup squad with all his efforts concentrated on the T20 Blast having been left out of the national team's upcoming tours of the Caribbean and Bangladesh given the extra quarantine days he would have faced.

“Had we not been in the middle of a global pandemic Marnus would be on this tour as a well-established member and important part of the one-day side," national selector Trevor Hohns said last month when the touring party was announced.

Since returning to the Brisbane Heat after last summer's Test series against India, Labuschagne has scored 402 runs at 50.25 and a strike rate of 135.35 from nine T20 matches in Australia and the UK.

Whether there is room for a player with a similar style of play and strike rate to Steve Smith in the Australia T20 XI is up for debate, but Labuschagne is eager to push his case.

"Any time you can't go to play for Australia is a very disappointing time, but the silver lining is that I get to play most of the T20 comp here and almost double the amount of T20s I have played in my career," the batter told The Times recently, noting he will play 14 games for Glamorgan.

"I would love to be playing in the World Cup in a few months.

"I don't know if it is a realistic goal from the selectors, but it is a realistic goal from my perspective."

Given he is currently seen by selectors as a key cog in the ODI side but not immediately in the picture for T20Is, missing the tour may well be a blessing in disguise for Labuschagne's ambitions to play all three formats.

Against Surrey, he mixed more traditional shots with moving around the crease to manipulate the field, notably stepping over to the off-side to expose his stumps, then turning Sam Curran's leg-stump yorker to the fine leg boundary to bring up fifty.

Later, against Tom Curran, he stepped to leg side to invite the bowler to go wide and then dabbed between the backward point and short third man fielders who were both in the ring.

He fell in the final over, having crunched eight fours and launched a six back over the head of Jordan Clark, his 74 lifting Glamorgan to 8-166 in an innings where only two other batters passed 11.

"Marnus is an incredibly adaptable player in reading situations, very skilful, he's a credit to himself," Glamorgan coach Matt Maynard said after the loss.