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The Australian batsman carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he closes the lid of his toastie maker. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about his performance. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “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. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Look, here’s the main point. Shall we get the cricket bit out of the way first? Quick update for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in various games – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Australia top three clearly missing performance and method, revealed against the Proteas in the WTC final, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that tour, but on some level you felt Australia were keen to restore him at the earliest chance. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a plan that Australia need to work. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks hardly a Test match opener and more like the attractive performer who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this feels like a weirdly lightweight side, missing authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, just left out from the 50-over squad, the right person to return structure to a brittle empire. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne these days: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as extremely focused with small details. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Not really too technical, just what I must score runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still endlessly adjusting that approach from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the training with trainers and footage, completely transforming into the least technical batter that has ever existed. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the cricket.

Wider Context

Maybe before this highly uncertain Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a side 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 batsman like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with cricket and magnificently unbothered by who knows about it, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of quirky respect it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to replace a concussed Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through pure determination – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his days playing English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising all balls of his time at the crease. According to the analytics firm, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to change it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his technique. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all preordained, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may appear to the rest of us.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the key distinction between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player