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The Australian batsman carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

Already, it’s clear a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for his state team this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to endure a section of wobbling whimsy about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, to cut to the chase. Shall we get the cricket bit out of the way first? Quick update for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all formats – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking performance and method, shown up by the Proteas in the WTC final, exposed again in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that trip, but on some level you felt Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks hardly a Test match opener and closer to the good-looking star who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. No other options has shown convincing form. One contender looks finished. Another option is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, short of authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, freshly dropped from the ODI side, the perfect character to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, not as maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I must make runs.”

Of course, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that method from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the sport.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. In England we have a team for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player utterly absorbed with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of absurd reverence it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing club cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, literally visualising all balls of his time at the crease. As per Cricviz, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before anyone had a chance to affect it.

Current Struggles

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 stopped trusting his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, thinks a attention to shorter formats started to undermine belief in his alignment. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the 50-over squad.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, 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 main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a instinctive player