🔗 Share this article

Marnus carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Boom. Then you get it toasted on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the trick of the trade,” he declares. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, it’s clear a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through several lines of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I actually like the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Alright. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Look, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the match details out of the way first? Small reward for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Australia top three badly short of 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 one hand you gathered Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

This represents a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has just one 100 in his recent 44 batting efforts. Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and rather like the good-looking star who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. Other candidates has made a cogent case. One contender looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, missing command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to return structure to a shaky team. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, less extremely focused with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I must make runs.”

Naturally, this is doubted. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that approach from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever played. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has always made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging cricketers in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom detailed examination, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Live in the instant.

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

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to replace a concussed the senior batsman at Lord’s in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game more deeply. To reach it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his days playing English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day resting on a bench in a trance-like state, actually imagining each delivery of his batting stint. Per the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his trainer, his coach, believes a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may seem to the rest of us.

This, to my mind, has always been the key distinction between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player