🔗 Share this article

Marnus methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are going off. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the Ashes series.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure a section of light-hearted musing about toasted sandwiches, plus an additional unnecessary part of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, here’s the main point. Let’s address the sports aspect initially? Quick update for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tigers – his third in recent months in all formats – feels importantly timed.

We have an Australia top three badly short of form and structure, exposed by the South African team in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that trip, but on one hand you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the earliest chance. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a approach the team should follow. The opener has just one 100 in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks less like a first-innings batsman and rather like the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. No other options has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks finished. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their skipper, Pat Cummins, is injured and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, recently omitted from the ODI side, the ideal candidate to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with small details. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Naturally, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that method from dawn to dusk, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will spend months in the nets with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is just the quality of the focused, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the sport.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a squad for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of absurd reverence it demands.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in Kent league cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, literally visualising each delivery of his innings. As per Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to influence it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his trainer, Neil D’Costa, believes a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Good news: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the ordinary people.

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