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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he brings down the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the key technique,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the Ashes series.

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 a section of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the second person. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a serving plate and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go for a hit, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, here’s the main point. How about we cover the sports aspect out of the way first? Little treat for your patience. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tigers – his third in recent months in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

We have an Aussie opening batsmen clearly missing performance and method, revealed against the Proteas in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on some level you felt Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks hardly a Test opener and more like the good-looking star who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks finished. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, just left out from the ODI side, the right person to return structure to a shaky team. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a simplified, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his hundred. “Not really too technical, just what I need to make runs.”

Clearly, this is doubted. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that technique from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever existed. This is just the trait of the obsessed, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the sport.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, 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 player completely dedicated with the sport and wonderfully unconcerned by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of quirky respect it demands.

His method paid off. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To reach it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his time with club cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, actually imagining each delivery of his innings. According to Cricviz, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to affect it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no further goals to picture, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he stopped trusting his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his technique. Good news: he’s recently omitted from the ODI side.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an religious believer who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of achieving this peak performance, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the mortal of us.

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player