MARNUS Labuschagne has declared himself fit and available for next week’s Boxing Day Test against Pakistan after scans revealed he didn’t suffer any significant injury to the little finger on his right hand.
The 29-year-old copped a painful blow to his hand from a Khurram Shahzad delivery that climbed steeply on him. He received immediate attention from the team’s physio and was sent for x-rays following his dismissal not too long thereafter.

While scans cleared of any fracture, Labuschagne admitted to having been nervous and that the injury felt different to other finger blows he’s sustained in the past.
“It hit me more on the knuckle side and jammed up my hand, so I was a bit nervous out there,” Labuschagne told reporters after Australia’s 360-run win in Perth. “I’ve had a lot of finger blows but this felt a bit different. Overnight it was a little bit sore but [Sunday] morning was fine, I had a hit and it was all right.

“There was no padding on that side of the glove, and it got me sort of underneath and jammed it so it didn’t feel that good. But I’ve actually got some really good range in it, so all good.”
Labuschagne, who batted only 43 balls across two innings of the Perth Test, said his net session on Sunday morning against Lance Morris was not to test out his injured hand but to get some more batting time which was hard to come by in the match following two cheap dismissals. He did, however, mention that the surface at the MCG would present a much different challenge to the pitch at Perth with some bounce traded for seam movement.

“The wickets are really nice out there [in the Perth Stadium nets], we had the new wickets come in and then facing good bowlers on true wickets is good for skill, good for batting,” he said. “I batted for an hour and faced three bowlers.

“I’ll probably have a couple of days off, and have a few sessions back in Brisbane and then join the squad on the 23rd or 24th and commence our prep from there. The MCG wicket has changed so much over the last four years. It’s become very much like the Adelaide wicket, a bit of seam, swing, quite a bit of grass. It will be a nice challenge I think, a bit of a different challenge to this [Perth] wicket… which was more bounce whereas there will probably be a bit more seam.” (Cricbuzz)