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Labuschagne methodically applies butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

At this stage, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to cover your eyes. The alarm bells of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

You likely wish to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through several lines of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an further tangential section of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Alright. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Look, let’s try it like this. Shall we get the match details to begin with? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against Tasmania – his third in recent months in various games – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Australia top three badly short of consistency and technique, revealed against the South African team in the WTC final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a approach the team should follow. The opener has one century in his past 44 innings. Sam Konstas looks hardly a Test opener and closer to the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks finished. Another option is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is injured and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, short of command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, recently omitted from the 50-over squad, the perfect character to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with small details. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I should score runs.”

Naturally, this is doubted. Probably this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that technique from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will take time in the training with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the game.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with the sport and totally indifferent by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of odd devotion it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game more deeply. To access it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his time with club cricket, fellow players saw him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, actually imagining every single ball of his time at the crease. Per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a unusually large number of chances were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Recent Challenges

Perhaps this was why his career began to disintegrate the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he lost faith in his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, Neil D’Costa, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his alignment. Encouragingly: he’s just been dropped from the one-day team.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the mortal of us.

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