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Marnus methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it golden on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

On-Field Matters

Look, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the sports aspect initially? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third of the summer in various games – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Australian top order badly short of performance and method, exposed by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on a certain level you gathered Australia were keen to restore him at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks hardly a first-innings batsman and more like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks finished. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, missing command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, recently omitted from the 50-over squad, the right person to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I need to make runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. Probably this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that technique from dawn to dusk, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the nets with advisors and replays, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever been seen. This is simply the quality of the focused, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the game.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this very open Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a man utterly absorbed with the sport and magnificently unbothered by public perception, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of quirky respect it demands.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to replace a concussed the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game more deeply. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing Kent league cricket, fellow players saw him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining each delivery of his time at the crease. According to cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react 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 stopped trusting his signature shot, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to undermine belief in his positioning. Good news: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a instinctive player