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Marnus methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of ideal crispiness, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The alarm bells of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne scored 160 for his state team this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through several lines of wobbling whimsy about toasties, plus an further tangential section of overly analytical commentary in the direct address. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a plate and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he remarks, “but I actually like the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, here’s the main point. How about we cover the cricket bit to begin with? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third in recent months in various games – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Australian top order badly short of form and structure, exposed by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, 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.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has just one 100 in his past 44 innings. The young batsman 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 shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still surprisingly included, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is injured and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, short of authority or balance, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a game starts.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, just left out from the ODI side, the ideal candidate to return structure to a shaky team. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne these days: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, not as maniacally obsessed with small details. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I must make runs.”

Clearly, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still endlessly adjusting that technique from dawn to dusk, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, completely transforming into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging cricketers in the cricket.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with the sport and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of absurd reverence it deserves.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his time with English county cricket, teammates would find him on the game day resting on a bench in a meditative condition, literally visualising each delivery of his time at the crease. As per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to change it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his performance dipped the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space 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 coach, Neil D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Good news: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an religious believer who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may look to the rest of us.

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