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Labuschagne methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

Already, you may feel a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

You probably want to read more about his performance. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure a section of light-hearted musing about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the match details out of the way first? Little treat for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third this season in all formats – feels quietly decisive.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of consistency and technique, revealed against the Proteas in the WTC final, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on a certain level you gathered Australia were keen to restore him at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a plan that Australia need to work. The opener has one century in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks hardly a first-innings batsman and rather like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. No other options has shown convincing form. Nathan McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, short of command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, just left out from the ODI side, the right person to return structure to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, back-to-basics Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Less focused on technique, just what I should score runs.”

Naturally, few accept this. Probably this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that method from dawn to dusk, going further toward simplicity than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever played. This is just the nature of the addict, and the trait that has long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the game.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a team for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a individual terminally obsessed with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by who knows about it, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of odd devotion it deserves.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game with greater insight. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game positioned on a seat in a trance-like state, actually imagining each delivery of his innings. As per the analytics firm, during the initial period of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Somehow Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to affect it.

Current Struggles

It’s possible this was why his career began to disintegrate 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 began doubting his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, thinks a emphasis on limited-overs started to erode confidence in his positioning. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all preordained, who thus sees his job as one of achieving this peak performance, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the mortal of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and Steve Smith, a inherently talented player