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Marnus evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, 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, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of playful digression about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a serving plate and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Look, here’s the main point. Shall we get the cricket bit out of the way first? Small reward for reading until now. And while there may still be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Australian top order seriously lacking form and structure, shown up by the South African team in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on one hand you felt Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a plan that Australia need to work. The opener has one century in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and closer to the attractive performer who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as just two years ago, recently omitted from the one-day team, the right person to return structure to a shaky team. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne now: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I must make runs.”

Naturally, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that method from morning to night, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. This is just the nature of the addict, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging cricketers in the sport.

Wider Context

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England 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. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with cricket and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of absurd reverence it demands.

His method paid off. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game more deeply. To reach it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match positioned on a seat in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing all balls of his innings. Per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to influence it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, his coach, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his technique. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the ordinary people.

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