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Marnus methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, you may feel a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are going off. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through a section of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an further tangential section of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the cricket bit initially? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third this season in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australian top order seriously lacking consistency and technique, exposed by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on one hand you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

This represents a approach the team should follow. Usman Khawaja has one century in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks hardly a first-innings batsman and rather like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks finished. Another option is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as in the recent past, recently omitted from the one-day team, the ideal candidate to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a streamlined, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I should score runs.”

Clearly, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that approach from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the game.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this very open Ashes series, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man utterly absorbed with the sport and wonderfully unconcerned by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with exactly the level of quirky respect it deserves.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his days playing club cricket, fellow players saw him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his batting stint. According to cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to affect it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his favorite stroke, got trapped on the crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, believes a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Good news: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may seem to the ordinary people.

This, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and Smith, a more naturally gifted player