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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on both sides.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the key technique,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for his state team this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to sit through several lines of playful digression about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “Few try 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.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the cricket bit to begin with? Small reward for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third in recent months in all formats – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Australia top three clearly missing performance and method, exposed by South Africa in the WTC final, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was omitted during that trip, but on some level you felt Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the first opportunity. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has one century in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks less like a Test match opener and rather like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood epic. None of the alternatives has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks cooked. Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this feels like a weirdly lightweight side, lacking authority or balance, the kind of natural confidence that has often helped Australia dominate before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as just two years ago, just left out from the one-day team, the perfect character to return structure to a shaky team. And we are informed this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne these days: a streamlined, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Not overthinking, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Naturally, few accept this. Probably this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that technique from all day, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone has ever dared. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, thoroughly reshaping his game into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. This is just the quality of the focused, and the quality that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the sport.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. On England’s side we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Live in the instant.

In the other corner you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with the game and magnificently unbothered by who knows about it, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with precisely the amount of quirky respect it demands.

And it worked. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game with greater insight. To tap into it – through sheer intensity of will – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his time with Kent league cricket, colleagues noticed him on the day of a match positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, mentally rehearsing all balls of his time at the crease. As per Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable catches were spilled from his batting. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before fielders could respond to influence it.

Form Issues

Perhaps 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. Also – to be fair – he stopped trusting his favorite stroke, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his mentor, D’Costa, believes a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his technique. Good news: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the mortal of us.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the key distinction between him and Steve Smith, a inherently talented player