🔗 Share this article

The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a toasted delight of ideal crispiness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, you may feel a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are blinking intensely. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne made 160 runs for his state team this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through several lines of light-hearted musing about toasted sandwiches, plus an additional unnecessary part of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I actually like the grilled sandwich chilled. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go for a hit, come back. Alright. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, let’s try it like this. How about we cover the sports aspect initially? Quick update for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third this season in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

Here’s an Australian top order seriously lacking consistency and technique, exposed by the South African team in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on one hand you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he looks to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and closer to the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. Nathan McSweeney looks finished. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as just two years ago, just left out from the 50-over squad, the perfect character to return structure to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I should score runs.”

Of course, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that technique from morning to night, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a kind of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player utterly absorbed with the game and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of quirky respect it deserves.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To access it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in Kent league cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day positioned on a seat in a focused mindset, literally visualising each delivery of his time at the crease. As per Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before fielders could respond to influence it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his favorite stroke, got trapped on the crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, thinks a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his technique. Good news: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his task as one of achieving this peak performance, despite being puzzling it may appear to the rest of us.

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