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Marnus carefully spreads butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the key technique,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The alarm bells of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Boom. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Look, here’s the main point. Let’s address the cricket bit out of the way first? Quick update for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tigers – his third in recent months in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

We have an Australia top three seriously lacking form and structure, shown up by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that trip, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he appears to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has one century in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and more like the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a weirdly lightweight side, missing command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, freshly dropped from the one-day team, the right person to bring stability to a fragile lineup. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne now: a simplified, back-to-basics Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I should make runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. Probably this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still constantly refining that approach from dawn to dusk, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone has ever dared. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with trainers and footage, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this very open Ashes series, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a team for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with the game and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of quirky respect it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his time with Kent league cricket, colleagues noticed him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing all balls of his batting stint. Per the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before fielders could respond to influence it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his performance dipped the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his favorite stroke, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, thinks a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his technique. Encouragingly: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of achieving this peak performance, despite being puzzling it may seem to the rest of us.

This approach, to my mind, has always been the primary contrast between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player