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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he closes the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

Already, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback 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 three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and moves toward the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, head to practice, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, here’s the main point. Shall we get the sports aspect to begin with? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Australian top order seriously lacking performance and method, revealed against the South African team in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on one hand you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

This represents a plan that Australia need to work. Usman Khawaja has one century in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and closer to the handsome actor who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks finished. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, short of command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, freshly dropped from the one-day team, the ideal candidate to restore order to a shaky team. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne these days: a simplified, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Of course, nobody truly believes this. Probably this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that approach from all day, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the nets with coaches and video clips, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever existed. That’s the quality of the focused, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the game.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a side for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man utterly absorbed with cricket and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of absurd reverence it requires.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the game day positioned on a seat in a focused mindset, actually imagining each delivery of his time at the crease. According to Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to influence it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his performance dipped the moment he reached the summit. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, thinks a attention to shorter formats started to undermine belief in his technique. Good news: he’s recently omitted from the 50-over squad.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical 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 mortal of us.

This, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a instinctive player