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The Australian batsman evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he closes the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the secret method,” he explains. 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 elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for his state team this week and is being feverishly talked up for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about his performance. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the second person. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “Few try this,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the sports aspect initially? Quick update for reading until now. And while there may still be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third this season in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of form and structure, exposed by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on some level you felt Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has one century in his last 44 knocks. Konstas looks hardly a Test match opener and closer to the attractive performer who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks finished. Harris is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their skipper, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as just two years ago, just left out from the one-day team, the perfect character to bring stability to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne now: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I must make runs.”

Naturally, few accept this. Probably this is a new approach that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that approach from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the nets with advisors and replays, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this highly uncertain Ashes series, there is even a type of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with the game and totally indifferent by public perception, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who handles this unusual pursuit with precisely the amount of quirky respect it requires.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game more deeply. To access it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining each delivery of his batting stint. Per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to change it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his signature shot, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, thinks a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief 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 religious believer who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may seem to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player