🔗 Share this article

Marnus methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he states as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly browned of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “So this is the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, you may feel a layer of boredom is beginning to cover your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback before the Ashes.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to get through several lines of playful digression about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the “you” perspective. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, head to practice, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, to cut to the chase. Shall we get the cricket bit initially? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against the Tigers – his third in recent months in various games – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australian top order seriously lacking consistency and technique, exposed by the Proteas in the WTC final, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on a certain level you gathered Australia were keen to restore him at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

And this is 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 portray a cricketer in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has made a cogent case. One contender looks out of form. Another option is still oddly present, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a surprisingly weak team, lacking strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as just two years ago, just left out from the ODI side, the right person to return structure to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne now: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with small details. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I must score runs.”

Of course, nobody truly believes this. Probably this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that technique from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the training with coaches and video clips, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever played. That’s the quality of the focused, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the sport.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a squad for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual terminally obsessed with the sport and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with exactly the level of absurd reverence it deserves.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To access it – through pure determination – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his time with Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the game day resting on a bench in a focused mindset, literally visualising each delivery of his batting stint. As per the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to influence it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible 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. Additionally – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, D’Costa, believes a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his positioning. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the 50-over squad.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the rest of us.

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