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Marnus evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “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 likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a plate and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Boom. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the match details initially? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third this season in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

We have an Australian top order badly short of form and structure, shown up by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on a certain level you felt Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks not quite a Test match opener and closer to the handsome actor who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. No other options has shown convincing form. One contender looks out of form. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, lacking authority or balance, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often helped Australia dominate before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as just two years ago, recently omitted from the one-day team, the ideal candidate to bring stability to a fragile lineup. And we are told this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I believe I have really cut out extras,” he said after his hundred. “Not overthinking, just what I need to make runs.”

Naturally, few accept this. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that approach from morning to night, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will spend months in the nets with trainers and footage, thoroughly reshaping his game into the most basic batsman that has ever existed. This is simply the nature of the addict, and the characteristic that has always made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging players in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

Perhaps before this very open Ashes series, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with the game and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of absurd reverence it demands.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing English county cricket, teammates would find him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his time at the crease. Per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before fielders could respond to affect it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his career began to disintegrate the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he began doubting his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to undermine belief in his positioning. Positive development: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may look to the rest of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a more naturally gifted player