🔗 Share this article

The Australian batsman evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “There you go. Then you get it golden on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly browned of ideal crispiness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the key technique,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an national team comeback before the England-Australia contest.

You likely wish to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the direct address. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the grilled sandwich chilled. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Alright. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, let’s try it like this. Shall we get the sports aspect out of the way first? Quick update for making it this far. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third in recent months in various games – feels quietly decisive.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen badly short of performance and method, revealed against South Africa in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on one hand you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a strategy Australia must implement. The opener has just one 100 in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks not quite a Test match opener and more like the good-looking star who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. None of the alternatives has presented a strong argument. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, short of command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a ball is bowled.

Marnus’s Comeback

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to bring stability to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Naturally, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still constantly refining that method from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone else would try. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the nets with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the least technical batter that has ever played. That’s the nature of the addict, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating sportsmen in the game.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. For England we have a side for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

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

And it worked. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to substitute for an injured Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game more deeply. To reach it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the morning of a game resting on a bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining all balls of his time at the crease. As per the analytics firm, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were missed when he batted. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before anyone had a chance to change it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Encouragingly: he’s recently omitted from the ODI side.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his job as one of achieving this peak performance, no matter how mysterious it may look to the rest of us.

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