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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 states as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

By now, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The alarm bells of overly fancy prose are going off. 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 grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and moves toward the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go for a hit, come back. Boom. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, to cut to the chase. Shall we get the match details out of the way first? Quick update for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third in recent months in all formats – feels importantly timed.

This is an Aussie opening batsmen clearly missing consistency and technique, shown up by the South African team in the WTC final, highlighted further in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks hardly a first-innings batsman and more like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. One contender looks finished. Harris is still surprisingly included, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, missing authority or balance, the kind of natural confidence that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as in the recent past, recently omitted from the 50-over squad, the right person to bring stability to a fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I should score runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists just in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that technique from all day, going more back to basics than anyone else would try. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with trainers and footage, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever played. That’s the quality of the focused, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the cricket.

Wider Context

It could be before this highly uncertain Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. For England we have a squad for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a individual utterly absorbed with the sport and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with precisely the amount of odd devotion it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game more deeply. To access it – through sheer intensity of will – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the game day resting on a bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising all balls of his innings. Per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to affect it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no further goals to picture, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he stopped trusting his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, believes a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his technique. Good news: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who holds that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of achieving this peak performance, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the rest of us.

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and Smith, a inherently talented player