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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He opens the grill to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, you may feel a sense of disinterest is beginning to cover your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are blinking intensely. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through several lines of playful digression about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of overly analytical commentary in the direct address. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “Few try this,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Okay, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the cricket bit to begin with? Quick update for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in all formats – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australian top order badly short of consistency and technique, exposed by the Proteas in the WTC final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on some level you felt Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks less like a first-innings batsman and closer to the handsome actor who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. Other candidates has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, short of command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, just left out from the ODI side, the perfect character to return structure to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne now: a simplified, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I must bat effectively.”

Naturally, few accept this. Probably this is a new approach that exists only 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 practice sessions with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the most basic batsman that has ever existed. This is just the quality of the focused, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the game.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a sort of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. In England we have a squad for whom detailed examination, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with cricket and totally indifferent by who knows about it, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of odd devotion it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game more deeply. To access it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing club cricket, fellow players saw him on the morning of a game positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, mentally rehearsing all balls of his time at the crease. As per the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before fielders could respond to change it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he began doubting his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his technique. Good news: he’s recently omitted from the ODI side.

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

This mindset, to my mind, has long been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a more naturally gifted player