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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his toastie maker. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, you may feel a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an Australian Test recall before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasted sandwiches, plus an additional unnecessary part of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the second person. You groan once more.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go bat, come back. Boom. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Look, here’s the main point. Shall we get the match details initially? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third this season in various games – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Australia top three badly short of consistency and technique, exposed by the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the ideal reason.

Here is a approach the team should follow. The opener has one century in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks hardly a Test opener and more like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. No other options has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks out of form. Marcus Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, short of command or stability, the kind of natural confidence that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as in the recent past, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are informed this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Of course, few accept this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that approach from dawn to dusk, going further toward simplicity than anyone else would try. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the training with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever played. This is just the nature of the addict, and the trait that has always made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the game.

Bigger Scene

Perhaps before this very open England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a team for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player completely dedicated with cricket and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with precisely the amount of quirky respect it requires.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To access it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his days playing club cricket, colleagues noticed him on the morning of a game resting on a bench in a trance-like state, actually imagining all balls of his batting stint. Per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were missed when he batted. Somehow Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before anyone had a chance to change it.

Recent Challenges

Perhaps this was why his performance dipped the time he achieved top ranking. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Furthermore – 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 trainer, Neil D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his technique. Good news: he’s recently omitted from the ODI side.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of achieving this peak performance, despite being puzzling it may appear to the rest of us.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player