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Labuschagne methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through several lines of playful digression about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he states, “but I personally prefer the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Look, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the sports aspect initially? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tigers – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Australia top three seriously lacking consistency and technique, shown up by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on some level you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has one century in his last 44 knocks. Konstas looks hardly a Test match opener and rather like the handsome actor who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this feels like a weirdly lightweight side, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as just two years ago, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, back-to-basics Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with small details. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his hundred. “Not overthinking, just what I must score runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. Probably this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that method from dawn to dusk, going further toward simplicity than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever played. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the sport.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this highly uncertain England-Australia contest, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a squad for whom technical study, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Trust your gut. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of quirky respect it deserves.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to through 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 time with English county cricket, teammates would find him on the morning of a game resting on a bench in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his time at the crease. Per Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to change it.

Current Struggles

It’s possible this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, believes a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who holds 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 appear to the ordinary people.

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