Labuschagne has ‘no issues’ playing against Afghanistan

Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne has “no issues” with playing against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy on Friday. The two sides take each other on in their final group games in Lahore with plenty on the line for both; victory for either side guarantees qualification to the semi-finals.

However, invariably, there is attention around Australia’s decision to boycott any bilateral cricket against Afghanistan in protest at the Taliban’s decision to ban women and girls in the country from playing cricket, and their broader social exclusion. Australia have continued to play them in ICC events since the Taliban took over in 2021, with the two sides playing at each of the 2022 T20 World Cup, the 2023 ODI World Cup, and the 2024 T20 World Cup.

“It’s an ICC tournament,” Labuschagne said. “And our game, as the schedule came out, we’re playing Afghanistan. Personally, for me, which I can speak of, I’ve got no issues about playing tomorrow. But obviously there has been some stances from us at Cricket Australia in the past. But we’re just focusing on tomorrow where we are playing Afghanistan.”

Australia are not the only side to opt for different approaches to bilateral and ICC events when playing Afghanistan. On Wednesday, England’s game against Afghanistan went ahead after the ECB rejected calls by dozens of UK politicians to boycott the game. Afghanistan’s English coach, Jonathan Trott, told the BBC earlier this week the men’s team knew the situation in Afghanistan was “not right”, and a number of Afghanistan players over the last year have put out public statements of protest against the increasing restrictions of Afghan women in public life. Afghanistan eventually won a close contest by eight runs to eliminate England from the tournament.

It leaves them within touching distance of making the semi-finals of their second successive ICC event in front of what is likely to be a de facto home crowd in Lahore. It is something Australia have plenty of experience dealing with.

“We’d love to win tomorrow and silence the crowd,” Labuschagne said. “But for us it’s all about making sure we stick to our process and really engage in the game. We must be ready to play and whatever gets thrown at us – doesn’t matter what the situation is – that we come out and perform at our best.”

However, they may not even get that chance. Australia’s training was forced indoors due to rain in Lahore on Thursday, while Afghanistan cancelled an optional training session. There is further heavy rain forecast overnight, as well as for the earlier part of Friday. Eight years after multiple rain-affected games saw Australia eliminated from the 2017 Champions Trophy in the group stages, a rained-out game here would have the opposite result; it guarantees Australian progression to the semi-finals.

“I think as players you always want to play,” Labuschagne said. “Obviously if the whole match rains out I think that means that we go through to the to the semi-finals – but obviously we’d love to be able to win the game tomorrow and finish top in the pool. I think that’s something that we want to aim to do and make sure we’ve won all our matches leading up to the semi-finals. But those things are out of our control, so I will have to make sure we’re ready to go tomorrow if it is a shortened fixture.”