🔗 Share this article

The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, you may feel a sense of disinterest is beginning to cover your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the Ashes.

You likely wish to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to endure a section of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of tiresome meta‑deconstruction 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 personally prefer the cold toastie. Done, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the sports aspect to begin with? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third in recent months in various games – feels quietly decisive.

We have an Aussie opening batsmen clearly missing consistency and technique, revealed against the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on one hand you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a approach the team should follow. The opener has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and closer to the good-looking star who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has presented a strong argument. One contender looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still surprisingly included, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, missing authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as in the recent past, recently omitted from the one-day team, the right person to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with small details. “I believe I have really stripped it back,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I need to make runs.”

Naturally, this is doubted. In all likelihood this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that method from dawn to dusk, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the nets with advisors and replays, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever existed. This is just the quality of the focused, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the cricket.

Wider Context

It could be before this highly uncertain Ashes series, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a side for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Trust your gut. Be where the ball is. Smell the now.

In the other corner you have a player such as Labuschagne, a individual utterly absorbed with cricket and totally indifferent by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of quirky respect it requires.

This approach succeeded. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to come in for a hurt Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game more deeply. To reach it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing club cricket, fellow players saw him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, actually imagining every single ball of his innings. According to cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his career began to disintegrate the moment he reached the summit. There were no new heights to imagine, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to erode confidence in his alignment. Positive development: he’s recently omitted from the 50-over squad.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an religious believer who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his role as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the ordinary people.

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