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Marnus carefully spreads butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he brings down the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the key technique,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to cover your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne hit 160 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 understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through a section of playful digression about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Look, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the cricket bit initially? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third in recent months in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Aussie opening batsmen clearly missing consistency and technique, exposed by the South African team in the WTC final, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. Konstas looks hardly a first-innings batsman and more like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. Other candidates has made a cogent case. One contender looks finished. Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, short of authority or balance, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as recently as 2023, just left out from the ODI side, the ideal candidate to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I need to score runs.”

Naturally, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s personal view: still constantly refining that technique from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than anyone has ever dared. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the nets with coaches and video clips, completely transforming into the least technical batter that has ever existed. This is just the quality of the focused, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the game.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this highly uncertain Ashes series, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with exactly the level of quirky respect it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured the senior batsman at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through sheer intensity of will – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the game day positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, literally visualising every single ball of his innings. According to Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before fielders could respond to change it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, 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 misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil 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 one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of achieving this peak performance, despite being puzzling it may look to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the key distinction between him and the other batsman, a inherently talented player