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Labuschagne carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

By now, you may feel a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

You likely wish to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the direct address. You groan once more.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the cold toastie. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Okay, here’s the main point. How about we cover the cricket bit initially? Small reward for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third this season in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

We have an Australian top order badly short of performance and method, exposed by the South African team in the WTC final, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on one hand you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

Here is a approach the team should follow. Usman Khawaja has one century in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks less like a Test match opener and more like the attractive performer who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. Other candidates has made a cogent case. McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, short of command or stability, the kind of natural confidence that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, freshly dropped from the 50-over squad, the right person to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are advised 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 cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I should score runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that approach from dawn to dusk, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, thoroughly reshaping his game into the most basic batsman that has ever been seen. This is just the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the sport.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. For England we have a side for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the game and magnificently unbothered by public perception, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of odd devotion it demands.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to replace a concussed the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game more deeply. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his days playing club cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a trance-like state, actually imagining each delivery of his innings. Per the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Current Struggles

Maybe this was why his career began to disintegrate the point he became number one. There were no further goals to picture, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he began doubting his signature shot, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil D’Costa, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Good news: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the mortal of us.

This approach, to my mind, has always been the primary contrast between him and Steve Smith, a inherently talented player