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The Australian batsman carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, you may feel a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne scored 160 for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes.

You likely wish to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through a section of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, here’s the main point. Shall we get the match details out of the way first? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tigers – his third this season in various games – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Australia top three badly short of performance and method, shown up by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on a certain level you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. The opener has one century in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks not quite a Test opener and rather like the attractive performer who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood epic. No other options has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks cooked. Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, just left out from the ODI side, the ideal candidate to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a streamlined, back-to-basics Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with small details. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I must score runs.”

Naturally, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still endlessly adjusting that technique from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will take time in the training with trainers and footage, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever been seen. This is simply the nature of the addict, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the game.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a team for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a forbidden topic. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by public perception, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with exactly the level of odd devotion it demands.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with club cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, actually imagining each delivery of his time at the crease. According to Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before fielders could respond to change it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his career began to disintegrate the point he became number one. There were no further goals to picture, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting 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 erode confidence in his alignment. Good news: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical 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 look to the ordinary people.

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