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Marnus carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, it’s clear a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The alarm bells of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for his state team 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 that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through several lines of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I actually like the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Boom. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Look, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the cricket bit to begin with? Small reward for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in various games – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Australian top order badly short of consistency and technique, revealed against the South African team in the WTC final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that tour, but on some level you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Usman Khawaja has one century in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks hardly a Test opener and rather like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as in the recent past, recently omitted from the 50-over squad, the ideal candidate to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a simplified, back-to-basics Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with small details. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I must bat effectively.”

Of course, this is doubted. Probably this is a rebrand that exists just in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that method from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever played. That’s the nature of the addict, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the sport.

Wider Context

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. In England we have a squad for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with cricket and wonderfully unconcerned by public perception, who finds cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of absurd reverence it requires.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the game day resting on a bench in a meditative condition, mentally rehearsing every single ball of his time at the crease. According to Cricviz, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Somehow Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to affect it.

Recent Challenges

Maybe this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he began doubting his favorite stroke, got stuck in his crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, thinks a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his alignment. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may seem to the ordinary people.

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