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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

By now, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an additional unnecessary part of overly analytical commentary in the direct address. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Look, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the sports aspect initially? Quick update for making it this far. And while there may be just six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australian top order seriously lacking form and structure, exposed by the Proteas in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on a certain level you felt Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a approach the team should follow. The opener has just one 100 in his recent 44 batting efforts. Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and rather like the handsome actor who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. No other options has made a cogent case. One contender looks finished. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their skipper, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as just two years ago, recently omitted from the 50-over squad, the right person to return structure to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Of course, few accept this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that method from all day, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever existed. This is just the nature of the addict, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging sportsmen in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this highly uncertain England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man utterly absorbed with cricket and magnificently unbothered by public perception, who finds cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of odd devotion it deserves.

His method paid off. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To tap into it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a meditative condition, mentally rehearsing all balls of his time at the crease. According to Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to influence it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his alignment. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the mortal of us.

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