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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it golden on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly browned of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You groan once more.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and walks across the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Look, let’s try it like this. Shall we get the sports aspect initially? Small reward for reading until now. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third this season in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Australian top order seriously lacking form and structure, exposed by the Proteas in the WTC final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on some level you felt Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

This represents a approach the team should follow. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks less like a Test opener and rather like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has made a cogent case. One contender looks finished. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, short of command or stability, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Step forward Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, freshly dropped from the one-day team, the perfect character to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with small details. “I believe I have really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I must make runs.”

Of course, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that approach from all day, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the nets with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the quality of the focused, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging players in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. In England we have a squad for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by public perception, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of odd devotion it deserves.

His method paid off. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game more deeply. To tap into it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his time with club cricket, teammates would find him on the game day resting on a bench in a focused mindset, actually imagining every single ball of his batting stint. As per the analytics firm, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Current Struggles

Maybe this was why his performance dipped the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he lost faith in his favorite stroke, got stuck in his crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his role as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the ordinary people.

This, to my mind, has always been the main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player