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Labuschagne carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his toastie maker. “Boom. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to cover your eyes. The alarm bells of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to sit through several lines of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a plate and moves toward the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the match details out of the way first? Small reward for reading until now. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in all formats – feels quietly decisive.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of performance and method, revealed against the Proteas in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that trip, but on some level you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

This represents a plan that Australia need to work. Usman Khawaja has one century in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks hardly a Test match opener and closer to the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks finished. Another option is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their skipper, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a unusually thin squad, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as in the recent past, just left out from the ODI side, the perfect character to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a streamlined, back-to-basics Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his hundred. “Not overthinking, just what I must bat effectively.”

Naturally, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still constantly refining that method from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the training with coaches and video clips, completely transforming into the simplest player that has ever been seen. That’s the nature of the addict, and the trait that has long made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging players in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this very open England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a side for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the game and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of absurd reverence it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed the senior batsman at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To access it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, literally visualising each delivery of his batting stint. According to the analytics firm, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to affect it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his career began to disintegrate the moment he reached the summit. There were no further goals to picture, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil D’Costa, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to undermine belief in his alignment. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the ordinary people.

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