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Labuschagne carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “So this is the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

By now, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The alarm bells of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne made 160 runs for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through a section of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an further tangential section of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You feel resigned.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the toastie cold. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the cricket bit initially? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third in recent months in various games – feels significantly impactful.

We have an Australia top three badly short of form and structure, exposed by the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Usman Khawaja has one century in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks not quite a Test match opener and more like the attractive performer who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still surprisingly included, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is hurt and suddenly this seems like a surprisingly weak team, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as in the recent past, recently omitted from the one-day team, the perfect character to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne now: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with small details. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I must score runs.”

Clearly, this is doubted. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that method from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever existed. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing players in the sport.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, 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 terminally obsessed with the game and totally indifferent by who knows about it, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who handles this unusual pursuit with exactly the level of absurd reverence it deserves.

And it worked. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game on another level. To access it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his days playing English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day positioned on a seat in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing all balls of his batting stint. As per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a unusually large catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to influence it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no further goals to picture, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Furthermore – he stopped trusting his favorite stroke, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, believes a focus on white-ball cricket started to erode confidence in his technique. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who holds that this is all preordained, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may look to the rest of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player