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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he tells the camera as he closes the lid of his sandwich grill. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on both sides.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, you may feel a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland Bulls this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through a section of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You feel resigned.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Boom. Toastie’s ready to go.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the sports aspect to begin with? Small reward for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third this season in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Australia top three seriously lacking performance and method, revealed against the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on one hand you gathered Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Konstas looks hardly a first-innings batsman and rather like the good-looking star who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks finished. Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, recently omitted from the 50-over squad, the ideal candidate to return structure to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, not as maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I must score runs.”

Of course, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a rebrand that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that method from all day, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the nets with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever played. That’s the quality of the focused, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging sportsmen in the cricket.

Wider Context

Maybe before this very open Ashes series, there is even a type of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a side for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with the game and magnificently unbothered by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of odd devotion it deserves.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game more deeply. To tap into it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining each delivery of his batting stint. According to cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Current Struggles

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no further goals to picture, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his alignment. Good news: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his role as one of achieving this peak performance, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may seem to the mortal of us.

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