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Marnus evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to cover your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are going off. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an national team comeback before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to endure a section of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he states, “but I actually like the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Alright. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, here’s the main point. How about we cover the cricket bit to begin with? Small reward for reading until now. 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.

Here’s an Australian top order clearly missing form and structure, exposed by the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that trip, but on some level you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks less like a Test opener and closer to the handsome actor who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. No other options has presented a strong argument. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as in the recent past, recently omitted from the one-day team, the ideal candidate to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with small details. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I should make runs.”

Naturally, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that approach from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the nets with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever played. That’s the quality of the focused, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the sport.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. For England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual terminally obsessed with cricket and wonderfully unconcerned by public perception, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of quirky respect it demands.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game more deeply. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his time with Kent league cricket, colleagues noticed him on the game day resting on a bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising each delivery of his time at the crease. According to Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to affect it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his signature shot, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his trainer, Neil D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to undermine belief in his positioning. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

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

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the primary contrast between him and the other batsman, a more naturally gifted player