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The Australian batsman evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, you may feel a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne made 160 runs for his state team this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to endure several lines of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I actually like the cold toastie. Done, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go for a hit, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Okay, here’s the main point. Let’s address the match details initially? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against Tasmania – his third in recent months in various games – feels quietly decisive.

We have an Australia top three badly short of consistency and technique, exposed by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on some level you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has one century in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks not quite a Test match opener and rather like the attractive performer who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. No other options has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still surprisingly included, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this feels like a unusually thin squad, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as in the recent past, freshly dropped from the 50-over squad, the right person to restore order to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, back-to-basics Labuschagne, less extremely focused with small details. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Naturally, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that technique from all day, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is simply the quality of the focused, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a side for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a individual terminally obsessed with cricket and totally indifferent by who knows about it, who finds cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with precisely the amount of quirky respect it requires.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his time with Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, literally visualising each delivery of his batting stint. According to Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to change it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – 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, D’Costa, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the rest of us.

This, to my mind, has long been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a inherently talented player