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Marnus methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he brings down the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “So this is the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to cover your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about that. 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 self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I actually like the toastie cold. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Perfect. Sandwich is perfect.”

The Cricket Context

Alright, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the match details out of the way first? 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 Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in various games – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Australia top three badly short of consistency and technique, exposed by the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on one hand you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the earliest chance. Now he appears to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a plan that Australia need to work. Usman Khawaja has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and rather like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. One contender looks out of form. Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, freshly dropped from the one-day team, the perfect character to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are told this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne these days: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I should score runs.”

Naturally, few accept this. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that approach from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever existed. This is just the quality of the focused, and the characteristic that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a side for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a man utterly absorbed with the sport and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of absurd reverence it requires.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game on another level. To reach it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the morning of a game positioned on a seat in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing all balls of his time at the crease. Per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a unusually large catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to influence it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in 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, believes a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Good news: he’s recently omitted from the 50-over squad.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the rest of us.

This, to my mind, has always been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player