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Marnus evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly browned of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the key technique,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to appear in your eyes. The alarm bells of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the second person. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he announces, “but I actually like the toastie cold. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Perfect. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Look, here’s the main point. How about we cover the cricket bit initially? Quick update for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tasmanian side – his third this season in various games – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Australia top three clearly missing consistency and technique, exposed by the South African team in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that trip, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the earliest chance. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. Khawaja has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and rather like the attractive performer who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has shown convincing form. Nathan McSweeney looks finished. Marcus Harris is still surprisingly included, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, freshly dropped from the ODI side, the right person to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with small details. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I need to score runs.”

Clearly, this is doubted. Probably this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still endlessly adjusting that approach from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever played. This is just the nature of the addict, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. For England we have a team for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual utterly absorbed with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by public perception, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of absurd reverence it requires.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in club cricket, teammates would find him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his innings. According to cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to influence it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he began doubting his favorite stroke, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil D’Costa, thinks a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Positive development: he’s recently omitted from the 50-over squad.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the rest of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a inherently talented player