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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he closes the lid of his sandwich grill. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, you may feel a layer of boredom is beginning to cover your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an return to the Test side before the Ashes series.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to endure several lines of light-hearted musing about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the direct address. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and heads over the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I actually like the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Look, let’s try it like this. Shall we get the sports aspect to begin with? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third this season in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

This is an Australia top three clearly missing performance and method, shown up by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that trip, but on one hand you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

Here is a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks less like a Test opener and closer to the attractive performer who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood epic. No other options has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as in the recent past, recently omitted from the one-day team, the perfect character to bring stability to a fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with small details. “I feel like I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Not really too technical, just what I must make runs.”

Clearly, this is doubted. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that approach from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever been seen. This is simply the nature of the addict, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the game.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a sort of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. In England we have a team for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with cricket and wonderfully unconcerned by public perception, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of odd devotion it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his time with English county cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, literally visualising every single ball of his batting stint. Per the analytics firm, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable catches were spilled from his batting. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to change it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his favorite stroke, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil D’Costa, believes a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the rest of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has long been the key distinction between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player