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Marnus carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he closes the lid of his toastie maker. “Boom. Then you get it golden on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “So this is the key technique,” he explains. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

By now, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through several lines of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You feel resigned.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, head to practice, come back. Boom. Toastie’s ready to go.”

On-Field Matters

Look, here’s the main point. Shall we get the sports aspect initially? Small reward for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in all formats – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australian top order clearly missing form and structure, shown up by the South African team in the WTC final, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on a certain level you felt Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has just one 100 in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks not quite a Test match opener and more like the handsome actor who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, lacking command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, just left out from the one-day team, the right person to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a simplified, back-to-basics Labuschagne, less extremely focused with small details. “I believe I have really stripped it back,” he said after his hundred. “Not overthinking, just what I must bat effectively.”

Naturally, this is doubted. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still constantly refining that technique from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the training with advisors and replays, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever been seen. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging cricketers in the cricket.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a sort of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. For England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with cricket and wonderfully unconcerned by public perception, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of odd devotion it demands.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his days playing English county cricket, teammates would find him on the game day resting on a bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising all balls of his batting stint. According to cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable catches were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before anyone had a chance to change it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his career began to disintegrate the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, thinks a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his technique. Encouragingly: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may appear to the mortal of us.

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a more naturally gifted player