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The Australian batsman evenly coats butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s essential,” he states as he brings down the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

By now, it’s clear a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for his state team 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 understand with frustration – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of playful digression about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You groan once more.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I actually like the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the cricket bit initially? Quick update for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in all formats – feels importantly timed.

This is an Australian top order badly short of form and structure, revealed against the South African team in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on some level you felt Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and rather like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is injured and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, recently omitted from the one-day team, the perfect character to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne these days: a simplified, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less extremely focused with small details. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I must score runs.”

Naturally, this is doubted. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that approach from all day, going more back to basics than anyone else would try. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is just the nature of the addict, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the game.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. In England we have a squad for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with the sport and wonderfully unconcerned by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of odd devotion it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to through 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 days playing Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing all balls of his innings. Per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before anyone had a chance to change it.

Current Struggles

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, his coach, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his alignment. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may appear to the rest of us.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player