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Marnus methodically applies butter on each surface of a slice of soft bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it golden on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about his performance. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through several lines of light-hearted musing about grilled cheese, plus an further tangential section of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Alright. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, let’s try it like this. How about we cover the cricket bit out of the way first? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s hundred against Tasmania – his third in recent months in all cricket – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Australian top order clearly missing performance and method, revealed against South Africa in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks not quite a first-innings batsman and closer to the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. No other options has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a game starts.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, just left out from the 50-over squad, the right person to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Less focused on technique, just what I should score runs.”

Of course, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that method from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever existed. This is just the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the game.

Wider Context

It could be before this highly uncertain England-Australia contest, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a side for whom technical study, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with the sport and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the moments outside play, who approaches this quirky game with precisely the amount of quirky respect it demands.

And it worked. During his focused era – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a focused mindset, actually imagining all balls of his batting stint. According to Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a unusually large catches were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to influence it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, believes a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his technique. Positive development: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical Christian who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may look to the mortal of us.

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