🔗 Share this article

Marnus evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about his performance. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through a section of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a plate and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Alright. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Look, here’s the main point. Shall we get the cricket bit to begin with? Quick update for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s hundred against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking consistency and technique, shown up by the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that trip, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks less like a Test match opener and rather like the attractive performer who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood epic. No other options has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their skipper, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as just two years ago, just left out from the ODI side, the perfect character to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a simplified, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I must score runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that technique from all day, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will spend months in the nets with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a sort of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. For England we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with cricket and wonderfully unconcerned by who knows about it, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of odd devotion it deserves.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in club cricket, colleagues noticed him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining every single ball of his innings. As per cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to influence it.

Current Struggles

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he lost faith in his favorite stroke, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Positive development: 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 holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may appear to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and Steve Smith, a inherently talented player