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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to cover your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are going off. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of playful digression about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the direct address. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and walks across the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

On-Field Matters

Look, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the sports aspect initially? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third this season in all cricket – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking form and structure, shown up by the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on one hand you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has one century in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks not quite a Test opener and rather like the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, short of authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, freshly dropped from the 50-over squad, the perfect character to restore order to a shaky team. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with small details. “I believe I have really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Not really too technical, just what I should bat effectively.”

Clearly, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that technique from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever been seen. That’s the quality of the focused, and the trait that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the game.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a side for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with cricket and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the moments outside play, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of absurd reverence it requires.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through pure determination – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in Kent league cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game resting on a bench in a meditative condition, literally visualising all balls of his innings. Per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his career began to disintegrate the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he stopped trusting his favorite stroke, 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 emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Good news: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the mortal of us.

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