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Labuschagne methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s essential,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the key technique,” he explains. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

By now, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to cover your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the Ashes series.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he remarks, “but I actually like the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, let’s try it like this. How about we cover the match details to begin with? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may still be 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.

We have an Australian top order badly short of form and structure, exposed by South Africa in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on one hand you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the earliest chance. Now he appears 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 last 44 knocks. Konstas looks less like a Test opener and closer to the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has shown convincing form. Nathan McSweeney looks finished. Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a unusually thin squad, missing authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as just two years ago, freshly dropped from the one-day team, the perfect character to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a streamlined, back-to-basics Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with small details. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I need to make runs.”

Of course, nobody truly believes this. Probably this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that method from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the training with trainers and footage, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever been seen. This is just the nature of the addict, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the game.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this very open England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a side for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual terminally obsessed with cricket and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of odd devotion it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game more deeply. To reach it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing Kent league cricket, colleagues noticed him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining each delivery of his innings. As per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a unusually large catches were spilled from his batting. Somehow Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to change it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his career began to disintegrate the time he achieved top ranking. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Additionally – he lost faith in his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his positioning. Positive development: he’s recently omitted from the 50-over squad.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical Christian who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may look to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has always been the main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a inherently talented player