🔗 Share this article

The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of ideal crispiness, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the trick of the trade,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 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 wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the direct address. You groan once more.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the toastie cold. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Alright, here’s the main point. Shall we get the sports aspect out of the way first? Quick update for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s century against the Tigers – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking consistency and technique, exposed by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on some level you gathered Australia were eager to bring him back at the earliest chance. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks not quite a first-innings batsman and more like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, missing command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, recently omitted from the 50-over squad, the ideal candidate to return structure to a shaky team. And we are told this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne now: a streamlined, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Less focused on technique, just what I must make runs.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that technique from all day, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever existed. This is simply the quality of the focused, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging players in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. For England we have a team for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Trust your gut. Be where the ball is. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated 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 quirky respect it requires.

His method paid off. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in club cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, literally visualising each delivery of his innings. According to Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before others could react to affect it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no further goals to picture, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, believes a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his technique. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who holds 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 rest of us.

This, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and Smith, a inherently talented player