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The Australian batsman carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of white bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it golden on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland Bulls this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to endure a section of light-hearted musing about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the second person. You feel resigned.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the cold toastie. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Alright. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the cricket bit to begin with? Quick update for your patience. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all formats – feels importantly timed.

This is an Australian top order badly short of form and structure, revealed against the Proteas in the WTC final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on one hand you gathered Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. The opener has just one 100 in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks less like a Test opener and rather like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. Other candidates has made a cogent case. McSweeney looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, short of command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as in the recent past, just left out from the one-day team, the ideal candidate to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, not as maniacally obsessed with small details. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Less focused on technique, just what I must score runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s personal view: still constantly refining that method from dawn to dusk, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever been seen. This is just the trait of the obsessed, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. In England we have a side for whom detailed examination, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the sport and magnificently unbothered by who knows about it, who finds cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of quirky respect it demands.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing club cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising each delivery of his innings. According to cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to change it.

Current Struggles

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his favorite stroke, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the 50-over squad.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an religious believer who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the rest of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has long been the main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a inherently talented player