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Marnus evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Boom. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the trick of the trade,” he declares. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

At this stage, you may feel a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for his state team this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure a section of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an additional unnecessary part of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I actually like the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, let’s try it like this. How about we cover the cricket bit to begin with? Quick update for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third this season in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Australian top order clearly missing performance and method, exposed by South Africa in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on one hand you felt Australia were keen to restore him at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has just one 100 in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and more like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. No other options has made a cogent case. One contender looks finished. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their skipper, Pat Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, missing command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, recently omitted from the 50-over squad, the right person to return structure to a shaky team. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, not as maniacally obsessed with small details. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Not really too technical, just what I must make runs.”

Of course, few accept this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that method from morning to night, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever played. This is simply the quality of the focused, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the sport.

Bigger Scene

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. In England we have a team for whom detailed examination, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

In the other corner you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with precisely the amount of odd devotion it requires.

This approach succeeded. During his focused era – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to through 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 stint in club cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his batting stint. As per the analytics firm, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to influence 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. Additionally – he lost faith in his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil D’Costa, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to undermine belief in his alignment. Good news: he’s just been dropped from the 50-over squad.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all preordained, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the rest of us.

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