🔗 Share this article

Marnus evenly coats butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

At this stage, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You feel resigned.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the toastie cold. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, here’s the main point. How about we cover the match details out of the way first? Small reward for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in various games – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking consistency and technique, revealed against the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on some level you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks hardly a Test opener and closer to the good-looking star who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. No other options has made a cogent case. One contender looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this feels like a unusually thin squad, missing command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as just two years ago, just left out from the ODI side, the right person to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne these days: a streamlined, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with small details. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Not really too technical, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Naturally, this is doubted. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that method from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever been seen. This is simply the nature of the addict, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this very open Ashes series, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a squad for whom detailed examination, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with precisely the amount of quirky respect it demands.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To access it – through pure determination – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in club cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a trance-like state, actually imagining every single ball of his batting stint. Per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to affect it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his performance dipped the moment he reached the summit. There were no further goals to picture, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his technique. Good news: he’s just been dropped from the 50-over squad.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may appear to the rest of us.

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