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Marnus evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the gooey cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, it’s clear a glaze of ennui is beginning to cover your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to endure several lines of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the direct address. You feel resigned.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “Few try this,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, head to practice, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Okay, let’s try it like this. How about we cover the match details initially? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tasmanian side – his third this season in all formats – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of consistency and technique, revealed against South Africa in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that trip, but on some level you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he appears to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks not quite a Test match opener and more like the good-looking star who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has presented a strong argument. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a unusually thin squad, lacking command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, recently omitted from the one-day team, the right person to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are told this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, not as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I must score runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that approach from dawn to dusk, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the nets with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever been seen. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the sport.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a type of pleasing dissonance 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. Be where the ball is. Smell the now.

In the other corner you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of quirky respect it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game on another level. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his days playing club cricket, teammates would find him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining every single ball of his innings. According to cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before anyone had a chance to affect it.

Recent Challenges

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his positioning. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his role as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the mortal of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and Smith, a inherently talented player