🔗 Share this article

Marnus carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he brings down the lid of his toastie maker. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “So this is 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 form across your eyes. The alarm bells of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to endure a section of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of self-referential analysis in the second person. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Alright, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the cricket bit to begin with? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against the Tigers – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

We have an Australia top three seriously lacking performance and method, exposed by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on one hand you gathered Australia were keen to restore him at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. Khawaja has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. Konstas looks not quite a Test opener and rather like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. One contender looks out of form. Marcus Harris is still surprisingly included, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, lacking authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, just left out from the 50-over squad, the ideal candidate to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a simplified, back-to-basics Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I believe I have really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Naturally, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that method from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the training with coaches and video clips, completely transforming into the simplest player that has ever existed. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the game.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a side for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with cricket and totally indifferent by public perception, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who treats this absurd sport with precisely the amount of quirky respect it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game on another level. To access it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a focused mindset, actually imagining all balls of his batting stint. According to Cricviz, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to change it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his cover drive, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, his coach, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his technique. Good news: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of achieving this peak performance, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the rest 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