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Marnus methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “Perfect. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “So this is the key technique,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are going off. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of playful digression about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the second person. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he states, “but I actually like the cold toastie. Done, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go for a hit, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Alright, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the sports aspect initially? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third in recent months in various games – feels quietly decisive.

We have an Australian top order seriously lacking performance and method, revealed against the South African team in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on some level you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. Khawaja has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks hardly a Test opener and closer to the good-looking star who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. No other options has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks finished. Another option is still surprisingly included, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this seems like a surprisingly weak team, missing command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, freshly dropped from the 50-over squad, the ideal candidate to return structure to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as extremely focused with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I must score runs.”

Clearly, this is doubted. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that approach from all day, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will devote weeks in the nets with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the simplest player that has ever played. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the game.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with cricket and wonderfully unconcerned by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the moments outside play, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of odd devotion it requires.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed Steve Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in Kent league cricket, colleagues noticed him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his time at the crease. Per Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a unusually large number of chances were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to influence it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, thinks a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his positioning. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical Christian who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of achieving this peak performance, despite being puzzling it may appear to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has always been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player