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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on each surface of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a perfectly browned of ideal crispiness, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

By now, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The alarm bells of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed 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 sit through several lines of playful digression about toasties, plus an further tangential section of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a plate and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I actually like the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go for a hit, come back. Alright. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, here’s the main point. Shall we get the cricket bit initially? Quick update for your patience. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

This is an Australia top three seriously lacking performance and method, shown up by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on one hand you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has one century in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks not quite a first-innings batsman and more like the attractive performer who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. Other candidates has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks cooked. Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this feels like a unusually thin squad, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as in the recent past, recently omitted from the one-day team, the right person to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I should score runs.”

Naturally, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that technique from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the nets with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the quality of the focused, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the game.

Wider Context

Maybe before this highly uncertain England-Australia contest, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a side for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man utterly absorbed with cricket and totally indifferent by public perception, who observes cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with exactly the level of absurd reverence it deserves.

His method paid off. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To reach it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing all balls of his batting stint. As per Cricviz, during the early stages of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to change it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no further goals to picture, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his cover drive, 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 emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his technique. Positive development: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of achieving this peak performance, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the mortal of us.

This, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player