The late Dean Jones felt Marnus Labuschagne is a better player than the prolific Steven Smith because the South African-born young Australia star has more time to play his shots than the former captain.

"Steve will play tennis ball cricket-like shots to balls pitched outside off-stump and pull them. But Marnus can place them to the off-side to a nicety. He has so much time to play his strokes. He will go on to become an all-time great batsman," Jones told this correspondent recently. "Marnus has picked Steven's brains and that is going to help him,"he added.