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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

By now, it’s clear a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne scored 160 for his state team this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

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 further tangential section of self-referential analysis in the second person. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, head to practice, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

On-Field Matters

Okay, here’s the main point. How about we cover the cricket bit initially? Quick update for your patience. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third this season in all cricket – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of performance and method, shown up by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on some level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

This represents a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks not quite a Test opener and rather like the handsome actor who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their skipper, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this seems like a surprisingly weak team, lacking command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

The Batsman’s Revival

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as in the recent past, just left out from the one-day team, the ideal candidate to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a simplified, back-to-basics Labuschagne, less extremely focused with technical minutiae. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his hundred. “Not really too technical, just what I need to score runs.”

Naturally, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s personal view: still endlessly adjusting that approach from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the most basic batsman that has ever been seen. That’s the quality of the focused, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the cricket.

Wider Context

It could be before this very open Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. For England we have a squad for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with the game and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of quirky respect it deserves.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the morning of a game resting on a bench in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his time at the crease. According to the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a unusually large number of chances were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to influence it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Furthermore – he began doubting his favorite stroke, got stuck in his crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, D’Costa, believes a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Good news: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an religious believer who believes that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of achieving this peak performance, despite being puzzling it may look to the mortal of us.

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