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Marnus methodically applies butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the key technique,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

At this stage, it’s clear a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to sit through several lines of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he states, “but I actually like the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, head to practice, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Okay, here’s the main point. Shall we get the cricket bit out of the way first? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of form and structure, exposed by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on one hand you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

Here is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks hardly a Test match opener and rather like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood epic. No other options has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, missing command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as just two years ago, recently omitted from the ODI side, the right person to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his hundred. “Not really too technical, just what I must make runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that technique from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, 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 long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the sport.

Wider Context

Maybe before this highly uncertain Ashes series, there is even a sort of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. In England we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by public perception, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who handles this unusual pursuit with precisely the amount of odd devotion it deserves.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in club cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing every single ball of his time at the crease. Per the analytics firm, during the initial period of his career a unusually large catches were spilled from his batting. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to change 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 boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, believes a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his positioning. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the 50-over squad.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may appear to the ordinary people.

This, to my mind, has always been the primary contrast between him and Smith, a instinctive player