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The Australian batsman evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he brings down the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the bubbling cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, you may feel a sense of disinterest is beginning to cover your eyes. The alarm bells of elaborate writing are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

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 several lines of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Look, here’s the main point. How about we cover the match details out of the way first? Little treat for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third in recent months in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

This is an Australia top three clearly missing form and structure, shown up by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the first opportunity. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

This represents a approach the team should follow. The opener has one century in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and more like the attractive performer who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, short of command or stability, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, just left out from the 50-over squad, the perfect character to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne now: a streamlined, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I need to make runs.”

Of course, few accept this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still endlessly adjusting that technique from all day, going further toward simplicity than anyone else would try. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the least technical batter that has ever existed. This is just the quality of the focused, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging cricketers in the game.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. For England we have a team for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Live in the instant.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man utterly absorbed with the sport and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with precisely the amount of quirky respect it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To reach it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in club cricket, colleagues noticed him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining all balls of his innings. Per the analytics firm, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his cover drive, got trapped on the crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may look to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the main point of difference between him and Smith, a inherently talented player