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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Boom. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

At this stage, it’s clear a sense of disinterest is beginning to cover your eyes. The alarm bells of overly fancy prose are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to sit through a section of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, here’s the main point. Shall we get the sports aspect to begin with? Small reward for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in various games – feels quietly decisive.

Here’s an Australia top three seriously lacking consistency and technique, shown up by the Proteas in the WTC final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that tour, but on one hand you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks less like a Test match opener and rather like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still surprisingly included, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as in the recent past, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to return structure to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a streamlined, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I must make runs.”

Clearly, this is doubted. Probably this is a rebrand that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that technique from all day, going more back to basics than anyone else would try. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the training with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever been seen. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the cricket.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. For England we have a team for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Trust your gut. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with cricket and magnificently unbothered by public perception, who finds cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of absurd reverence it requires.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game more deeply. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with English county cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match positioned on a seat in a trance-like state, actually imagining each delivery of his batting stint. According to the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were missed when he batted. Somehow Labuschagne had predicted events before anyone had a chance to change it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may look to the mortal of us.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the key distinction between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player