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The Australian batsman evenly coats butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he explains 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 ideal crispiness, the melted cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

At this stage, it’s clear a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the England-Australia contest.

You likely wish to read more about that. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to sit through several lines of playful digression about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Alright, here’s the main point. Shall we get the cricket bit to begin with? Little treat for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against the Tigers – his third in recent months in various games – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australia top three badly short of consistency and technique, revealed against the South African team in the WTC final, highlighted further in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on some level you gathered Australia were keen to restore him at the earliest chance. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a plan that Australia need to work. The opener has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Konstas looks less like a Test match opener and more like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks finished. Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their skipper, the pace bowler, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, lacking authority or balance, 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 in the recent past, just left out from the ODI side, the right person to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne now: a streamlined, back-to-basics Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I should bat effectively.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still endlessly adjusting that approach from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the sport.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a squad for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a player such as Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with the game and magnificently unbothered by public perception, who finds cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of quirky respect it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game more deeply. To tap into it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in club cricket, teammates would find him on the morning of a game positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, literally visualising all balls of his batting stint. Per Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before fielders could respond to affect it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his career began to disintegrate the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his mentor, D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his alignment. Encouragingly: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who believes that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may appear to the rest of us.

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