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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “So this is 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 red lights of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up 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 get through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an additional unnecessary part of overly analytical commentary in the direct address. You groan once more.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I actually like the toastie cold. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Look, here’s the main point. How about we cover the sports aspect out of the way first? Small reward for reading until now. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against Tasmania – his third in recent months in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

We have an Australia top three seriously lacking consistency and technique, exposed by the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on some level you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Usman Khawaja has one century in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks less like a Test opener and closer to the good-looking star who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. One contender looks out of form. Another option is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their skipper, Pat Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this feels like a unusually thin squad, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up 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 perfect character to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are informed this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, not as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Not overthinking, just what I should bat effectively.”

Clearly, this is doubted. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still endlessly adjusting that approach from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the training with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever existed. This is just the quality of the focused, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the sport.

Wider Context

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a side for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Smell the now.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with the sport and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of absurd reverence it requires.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to replace a concussed the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in Kent league cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, mentally rehearsing all balls of his batting stint. According to the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to change it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, thinks a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his alignment. Good news: he’s just been dropped from the one-day team.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the rest of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has consistently been the key distinction between him and Smith, a instinctive player