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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

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 no doubt informed that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about his performance. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to endure a section of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the second person. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he states, “but I actually like the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, let’s try it like this. How about we cover the sports aspect initially? Small reward for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s hundred against Tasmania – his third in recent months in all cricket – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of consistency and technique, revealed against the South African team in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that tour, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. Khawaja has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks less like a Test opener and closer to the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has made a cogent case. One contender looks out of form. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, missing command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, just left out from the 50-over squad, the right person to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a streamlined, back-to-basics Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “I believe I have really cut out extras,” he said after his hundred. “Not really too technical, just what I should bat effectively.”

Clearly, this is doubted. Most likely this is a new approach that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s personal view: still endlessly adjusting that approach from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will take time in the nets with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever existed. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the game.

Wider Context

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with cricket and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with precisely the amount of odd devotion it requires.

And it worked. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To access it – through pure determination – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his time with English county cricket, teammates would find him on the game day resting on a bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising all balls of his innings. As per the analytics firm, during the first few years of his career a unusually large catches were spilled from his batting. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before anyone had a chance to change it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps 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 cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his technique. Positive development: 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 thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may appear to the mortal of us.

This, to my mind, has always been the primary contrast between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player