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The Australian batsman evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, you may feel a glaze of ennui is beginning to cover your eyes. The alarm bells of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about his performance. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through a section of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an additional unnecessary part of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Alright. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the cricket bit out of the way first? Small reward for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third of the summer in various games – feels importantly timed.

We have an Australia top three clearly missing consistency and technique, exposed by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on a certain level you felt Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has one century in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks hardly a first-innings batsman and rather like the good-looking star who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, missing authority or balance, the kind of natural confidence that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, freshly dropped from the 50-over squad, the ideal candidate to return structure to a brittle empire. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne these days: a simplified, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with small details. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I need to score runs.”

Of course, few accept this. Probably this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still endlessly adjusting that method from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the training 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 quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with cricket and totally indifferent by public perception, who finds cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with precisely the amount of absurd reverence it deserves.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with English county cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, actually imagining every single ball of his innings. According to cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to influence it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his signature shot, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, thinks a emphasis on limited-overs started to erode confidence in his technique. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his task as one of achieving this peak performance, despite being puzzling it may seem to the rest of us.

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