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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s essential,” he states as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, you may feel a sense of disinterest is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are blinking intensely. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through a section of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You groan once more.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Alright. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Look, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the sports aspect out of the way first? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in all formats – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Australian top order seriously lacking performance and method, exposed by South Africa in the WTC final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on some level you felt Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

Here is a approach the team should follow. The opener has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and more like the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks out of form. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, missing command or stability, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, recently omitted from the ODI side, the ideal candidate to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne now: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I believe I have really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I should bat effectively.”

Of course, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that approach from all day, going further toward simplicity than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the training with trainers and footage, thoroughly reshaping his game into the most basic batsman that has ever existed. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a kind of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a squad for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

In the other corner you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player utterly absorbed with the game and totally indifferent by who knows about it, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of odd devotion it demands.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing all balls of his innings. Per cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable catches were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before anyone had a chance to affect it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his career began to disintegrate the moment he reached the summit. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Positive development: he’s recently omitted from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may appear to the mortal of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has consistently been the primary contrast between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player