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Marnus carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, you may feel a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The alarm bells of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about his performance. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through several lines of wobbling whimsy about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, head to practice, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Okay, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the cricket bit initially? Little treat for making it this far. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in various games – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Australia top three clearly missing performance and method, shown up by the South African team in the WTC final, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on some level you felt Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he looks to have given them the perfect excuse.

This represents a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has just one 100 in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks less like a first-innings batsman and more like the attractive performer who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. No other options has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still surprisingly included, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their skipper, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a weirdly lightweight side, short of authority or balance, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often given Australia a lead before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, freshly dropped from the ODI side, the perfect character to return structure to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a streamlined, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Not overthinking, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Of course, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that approach from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. You want less technical? Marnus will spend months in the training with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever been seen. This is simply the quality of the focused, and the characteristic that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the sport.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a team for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with cricket and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with exactly the level of odd devotion it demands.

This approach succeeded. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through pure determination – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining every single ball of his batting stint. As per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to influence it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his favorite stroke, got trapped on the crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the mortal of us.

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