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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he closes the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily bubbling away. “So this is the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, you may feel a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being eagerly promoted for an national team comeback before the Ashes.

You likely wish to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an further tangential section of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You groan once more.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I actually like the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, let’s try it like this. How about we cover the cricket bit initially? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of consistency and technique, exposed by South Africa in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has one century in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks not quite a Test match opener and closer to the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. No other options has made a cogent case. One contender looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a surprisingly weak team, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, freshly dropped from the ODI side, the ideal candidate to restore order to a shaky team. And we are told this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, back-to-basics Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his hundred. “Not overthinking, just what I should score runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that approach from all day, going further toward simplicity than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the most basic batsman that has ever played. That’s the nature of the addict, and the trait that has long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the game.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a sort of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a side for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of odd devotion it demands.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game more deeply. To reach it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with club cricket, teammates would find him on the game day resting on a bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising all balls of his time at the crease. According to cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to affect it.

Form Issues

Perhaps 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. Also – to be fair – he stopped trusting his favorite stroke, got stuck in his crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, believes a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his technique. Encouragingly: he’s just been dropped 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 predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may appear to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the primary contrast between him and Steve Smith, a inherently talented player