🔗 Share this article

The Australian batsman carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s essential,” he states as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being eagerly promoted for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes.

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

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he announces, “but I personally prefer the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go for a hit, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

On-Field Matters

Look, here’s the main point. Let’s address the match details out of the way first? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s hundred against Tasmania – his third in recent months in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Australian top order badly short of performance and method, revealed against the South African team in the Test championship decider, highlighted further in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and more like the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Harris is still surprisingly included, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as just two years ago, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are informed this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a streamlined, back-to-basics Labuschagne, less extremely focused with technical minutiae. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I should score runs.”

Of course, few accept this. Probably this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that approach from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. You want less technical? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever existed. This is just the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the game.

Wider Context

Maybe before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

In the other corner you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the game and totally indifferent by public perception, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of quirky respect it requires.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To reach it – through absolute focus – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his days playing English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, actually imagining every single ball of his batting stint. According to cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to affect it.

Form Issues

It’s possible this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his favorite stroke, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, thinks a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an evangelical Christian who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of achieving this peak performance, despite being puzzling it may look to the mortal of us.

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and Smith, a instinctive player