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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

Already, it’s clear a sense of disinterest is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about his performance. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” 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.”

The Cricket Context

Alright, to cut to the chase. Shall we get the cricket bit to begin with? Quick update for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third in recent months in all formats – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australian top order badly short of consistency and technique, exposed by the South African team in the WTC final, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on one hand you felt Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

Here is a approach the team should follow. The opener has one century in his recent 44 batting efforts. Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and closer to the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. Other candidates has made a cogent case. McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is injured and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, recently omitted from the one-day team, the right person to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are told this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne these days: a streamlined, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as extremely focused with small details. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I should score runs.”

Naturally, this is doubted. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that approach from dawn to dusk, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the nets with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever been seen. This is simply the nature of the addict, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the cricket.

Wider Context

It could be before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s endless focus. For England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with the sport 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 requires.

And it worked. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured the senior batsman at Lord’s in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game with greater insight. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with club cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, literally visualising all balls of his time at the crease. According to cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high catches were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he stopped trusting his favorite stroke, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, Neil D’Costa, believes a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his alignment. Encouragingly: he’s recently omitted from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an religious believer who holds that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the mortal of us.

This, to my mind, has always been the key distinction between him and Smith, a inherently talented player