"It seems like he is just fighting himself" - Damien Fleming on Marnus Labuschagne's below-par performances in the first 3 Ashes Tests

Damien Fleming feels Marnus Labuschagne is battling demons in his mind, which has resulted in his underwhelming performances in the first three Ashes Tests.

England defeated Australia by three wickets in the third Test at Headingley in Leeds on Sunday (July 9) to reduce the deficit to 1-2 in the five-match series. Labuschagne got off to starts in both innings but couldn't convert them into substantial efforts.

During an interaction on 'SEN SA Breakfast', Fleming was asked whether Labuschagne and Steve Smith's quick dismissals in the second innings hurt Australia, to which he responded:

"Ya, it did. There was not a lot in for the spinners. Moeen Ali was really just trying to dry up one end, so that the English quicks could attack from the other end. The Marnus one, he hasn't looked himself in this series. It seems like he is just fighting himself."

The former Australian pacer reckons Labuschagne's urge to keep the momentum going after getting a start has led to his downfall:

"Getting to 20 and 30 pretty easy but when he gets to that sort of score, it feels like I think he needs to just keep free-flowing and the Marnus we know in the last three or four years, he has been a batting machine really, averaging 55-60. It seems like he is battling himself."

Labuschagne has an overall average of 53.80 in the 41 Tests he has played. However, he has managed just 144 runs at a pedestrian average of 24.00 in his six innings of the ongoing Ashes.

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"Around that, he has been battling" - Damien Fleming on Steve Smith's indifferent returns apart from the Lord's hundred

Steve Smith chipped a catch to midwicket off Moeen Ali's bowling.

Damien Fleming pointed out that Steve Smith hasn't been at his best either apart from the century he scored at Lord's:

"Steve Smith's hundred at Lord's was as good a hundred as I have seen at the Test match level. But around that, he has been battling. To be honest, going into this series I would have thought Marnus and Smithy, as the right-handers in this Australian batting lineup, would have needed to dominate for us to win."

The cricketer-turned-commentator praised Usman Khawaja and Travis Head for covering up for Labuschagne and Smith's below-par performances:

"We know the English bowl really well to our left-handers. So probably as underwhelming as Marnus and Smith have been, Usman and Travis Head have been fantastic and then Mitchell Marsh coming in for Cameron Green, that was a brilliant hundred."

Fleming concluded by stating that Mitchell Marsh's hundred, although it came in a losing cause, was a great contribution from a player who would have been included in the XI at the last minute. He added that it was probably the all-rounder's best innings in Test cricket.