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The Australian batsman carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “So this is the key technique,” he declares. 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 sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure a section of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I actually like the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, head to practice, come back. Boom. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the match details initially? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in various games – feels importantly timed.

We have an Australian top order clearly missing performance and method, revealed against the Proteas in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a plan that Australia need to work. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. Sam Konstas looks hardly a Test opener and closer to the handsome actor who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has presented a strong argument. Nathan McSweeney looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often helped Australia dominate before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as just two years ago, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to return structure to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne now: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I should make runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. Probably this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that method from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with coaches and video clips, completely transforming into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

Perhaps before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. For England we have a team for whom detailed examination, especially personal critique, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player utterly absorbed with the game and totally indifferent by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with precisely the amount of odd devotion it demands.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his days playing club cricket, teammates would find him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing every single ball of his batting stint. According to Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before anyone had a chance to change it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no further goals to picture, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he began doubting his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, thinks a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Good news: he’s just been dropped from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the rest of us.

This, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and the other batsman, a more naturally gifted player