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Marnus methodically applies butter on each surface of a slice of soft bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

At this stage, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an national team comeback before the Ashes.

You likely wish to read more about that. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through several lines of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I actually like the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Boom. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Alright, here’s the main point. How about we cover the sports aspect to begin with? Small reward for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in various games – feels quietly decisive.

Here’s an Australian top order seriously lacking consistency and technique, revealed against the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on one hand you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks hardly a Test match opener and closer to the handsome actor who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. One contender looks cooked. Harris is still surprisingly included, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often helped Australia dominate before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, freshly dropped 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 currently: a simplified, back-to-basics Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “I believe I have really cut out extras,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I should score runs.”

Of course, few accept this. Probably this is a rebrand that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that method from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the training with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever played. That’s the nature of the addict, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this highly uncertain England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. In England we have a side for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Trust your gut. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a player such as Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the moments outside play, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of odd devotion it deserves.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game resting on a bench in a focused mindset, actually imagining every single ball of his time at the crease. Per Cricviz, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before fielders could respond to influence it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he began doubting his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his technique. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may look to the rest of us.

This, to my mind, has always been the key distinction between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player