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Marnus methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of white bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he declares. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, you may feel a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The alarm bells of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne made 160 runs for his state team 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 understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the “you” perspective. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go for a hit, come back. Alright. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, let’s try it like this. Shall we get the sports aspect to begin with? Small reward for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against the Tigers – his third in recent months in various games – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking performance and method, shown up by South Africa in the WTC final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on one hand you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks not quite a Test match opener and rather like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood epic. No other options has shown convincing form. Nathan McSweeney looks finished. Harris is still surprisingly included, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, missing command or stability, the kind of natural confidence that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, just left out from the 50-over squad, the ideal candidate to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with small details. “I believe I have really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Less focused on technique, just what I need to score runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that technique from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the training with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever existed. That’s the quality of the focused, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging cricketers in the sport.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this highly uncertain England-Australia contest, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. In England we have a squad for whom technical study, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with the sport and totally indifferent by public perception, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of quirky respect it deserves.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To access it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day resting on a bench in a focused mindset, literally visualising each delivery of his innings. According to the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were spilled from his batting. Somehow Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to affect it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his career began to disintegrate the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his cover drive, got trapped on the crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, believes a attention to shorter formats started to undermine belief in his technique. Encouragingly: he’s recently omitted from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who holds that this is all preordained, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may seem to the ordinary people.

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