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The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of white bread. “That’s essential,” he states as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

By now, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an Australian Test recall before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to get through several lines of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, head to practice, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, let’s try it like this. How about we cover the cricket bit initially? Quick update for reading until now. And while there may still be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer 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 following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on some level you sensed Australia were keen to restore him at the first opportunity. Now he looks to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and closer to the good-looking star who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. No other options has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks cooked. Another option is still surprisingly included, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a top-ranked Test batsman as just two years ago, freshly dropped from the ODI side, the ideal candidate to bring stability to a shaky team. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, not as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I must score runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. In all likelihood this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that approach from morning to night, going more back to basics than anyone has ever dared. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, completely transforming into the simplest player that has ever existed. This is just the trait of the obsessed, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the game.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a sort of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the sport and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of absurd reverence it deserves.

And it worked. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked 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 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 resting on a bench in a focused mindset, literally visualising all balls of his time at the crease. According to cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Somehow Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before fielders could respond to change it.

Recent Challenges

Maybe this was why his career began to disintegrate the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Furthermore – he began doubting his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, believes a focus on white-ball cricket started to undermine belief in his alignment. Good news: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an religious believer who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the ordinary people.

This, to my mind, has always been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a more naturally gifted player