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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he closes the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He opens the grill to reveal a toasted delight of ideal crispiness, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

Already, it’s clear a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the England-Australia contest.

You likely wish to read more about his performance. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through several lines of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You groan once more.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and moves toward the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. Sandwich is perfect.”

The Cricket Context

Look, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the match details out of the way first? Quick update for making it this far. 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 all formats – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of consistency and technique, shown up by South Africa in the WTC final, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on some level you felt Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the perfect excuse.

Here is a approach the team should follow. Usman Khawaja has one century in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks not quite a Test match opener and closer to the handsome actor who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. One contender looks out of form. Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is injured and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, lacking authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, freshly dropped from the ODI side, the right person to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with small details. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I must make runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that technique from all day, going further toward simplicity than anyone else would try. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the training with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever been seen. This is just the nature of the addict, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. In England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Smell the now.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player utterly absorbed with the game and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of odd devotion it demands.

And it worked. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to substitute for an injured the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through sheer intensity of will – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing all balls of his time at the crease. As per cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to affect it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his career began to disintegrate the time he achieved top ranking. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his signature shot, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his trainer, his coach, believes a emphasis on limited-overs started to erode confidence in his alignment. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his job as one of achieving this peak performance, no matter how mysterious it may seem to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and Smith, a instinctive player