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Marnus evenly coats butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s essential,” he states as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly browned of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily bubbling away. “So this is the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to cover your eyes. The red lights of overly fancy prose are going off. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure a section of playful digression about grilled cheese, plus an further tangential section of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I actually like the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Boom. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Alright, let’s try it like this. Shall we get the sports aspect out of the way first? Quick update for your patience. And while there may be just six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tigers – his third this season in various games – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of form and structure, shown up by South Africa in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on one hand you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. Khawaja has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. Konstas looks hardly a first-innings batsman and more like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. One contender looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a weirdly lightweight side, missing authority or balance, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: 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 fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne these days: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Not really too technical, just what I should make runs.”

Naturally, few accept this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that technique from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the nets with trainers and footage, thoroughly reshaping his game into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is simply the nature of the addict, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the sport.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a side for whom technical study, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

On the opposite side you have a player such as Labuschagne, a individual terminally obsessed with the sport and totally indifferent by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of quirky respect it deserves.

His method paid off. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in English county cricket, teammates would find him on the game day positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, actually imagining all balls of his time at the crease. Per the analytics firm, during the initial period of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before anyone had a chance to change it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no further goals to picture, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s just been dropped from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of achieving this peak performance, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the ordinary people.

This, to my mind, has always been the key distinction between him and Smith, a more naturally gifted player