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Marnus evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his toastie maker. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the key technique,” he announces. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

Already, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of overly fancy prose are blinking intensely. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of playful digression about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Look, here’s the main point. Let’s address the cricket bit to begin with? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australian top order clearly missing form and structure, revealed against South Africa in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on one hand you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has a single hundred in his last 44 knocks. Sam Konstas looks hardly a first-innings batsman and rather like the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this feels like a weirdly lightweight side, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as in the recent past, just left out from the ODI side, the perfect character to restore order to a shaky team. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a simplified, back-to-basics Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with small details. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I must score runs.”

Of course, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still endlessly adjusting that technique from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with advisors and replays, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging cricketers in the sport.

Wider Context

It could be before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a kind of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with the sport and magnificently unbothered by public perception, who finds cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of quirky respect it deserves.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in club cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match positioned on a seat in a focused mindset, actually imagining all balls of his time at the crease. Per cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to change it.

Current Struggles

It’s possible this was why his career began to disintegrate the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he began doubting his cover drive, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, Neil D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may seem to the mortal of us.

This, to my mind, has long been the key distinction between him and Smith, a more naturally gifted player