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Labuschagne carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on the outside.” He opens the grill to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “So this is the key technique,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the England-Australia contest.

You likely wish to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You groan once more.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go for a hit, come back. Boom. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the sports aspect out of the way first? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may be just six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s century against the Tigers – his third in recent months in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Aussie opening batsmen clearly missing form and structure, revealed against South Africa in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the perfect excuse.

This represents a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has one century in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks not quite a first-innings batsman and rather like the good-looking star who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. One contender looks finished. Harris is still surprisingly included, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, missing command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, freshly dropped from the ODI side, the right person to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are informed this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with small details. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I must score runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. In all likelihood this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that approach from dawn to dusk, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is just the nature of the addict, and the characteristic that has always made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging sportsmen in the sport.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this highly uncertain Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with the sport and totally indifferent by public perception, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of odd devotion it requires.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To access it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his innings. According to Cricviz, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before anyone had a chance to change it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he began doubting his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his trainer, his coach, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the one-day team.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may appear to the rest of us.

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