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The Australian batsman carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he explains as he closes the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

At this stage, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The alarm bells of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, head to practice, come back. Boom. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, here’s the main point. Shall we get the match details to begin with? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all formats – feels importantly timed.

We have an Australia top three seriously lacking performance and method, revealed against South Africa in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on a certain level you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the perfect excuse.

Here is a approach the team should follow. The opener has one century in his past 44 innings. Sam Konstas looks hardly a Test match opener and more like the attractive performer who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. Nathan McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still surprisingly included, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their skipper, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, freshly dropped from the 50-over squad, the right person to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a streamlined, back-to-basics Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with small details. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I must score runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that technique from morning to night, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will take time in the nets with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever existed. This is simply the quality of the focused, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the game.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this very open England-Australia contest, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with the sport and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of quirky respect it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game more deeply. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his days playing club cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day positioned on a seat in a focused mindset, literally visualising every single ball of his batting stint. According to cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to influence it.

Recent Challenges

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, believes a attention to shorter formats started to undermine belief in his technique. Good news: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may look to the rest of us.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the key distinction between him and the other batsman, a more naturally gifted player