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The Australian batsman carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of soft bread. “That’s the key,” he states as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily bubbling away. “So this is the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

By now, I sense a layer of boredom is beginning to cover your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are blinking intensely. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to get through a section of light-hearted musing about grilled cheese, plus an additional unnecessary part of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You sigh again.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I personally prefer the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, head to practice, come back. Alright. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Look, here’s the main point. How about we cover the cricket bit out of the way first? Quick update for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against the Tigers – his third this season in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking performance and method, shown up by South Africa in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on a certain level you gathered Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has one century in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks less like a Test match opener and rather like the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still surprisingly included, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, short of authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as just two years ago, just left out from the ODI side, the perfect character to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a simplified, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with small details. “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. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still endlessly adjusting that method from all day, going deeper into fundamentals than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever existed. This is simply the nature of the addict, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the game.

Bigger Scene

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable historic rivalry, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a team for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with cricket and wonderfully unconcerned by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the moments outside play, who treats this absurd sport with precisely the amount of quirky respect it requires.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his time with English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, literally visualising all balls of his time at the crease. As per the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable catches were missed when he batted. Somehow Labuschagne had predicted events before anyone had a chance to influence it.

Recent Challenges

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he began doubting his favorite stroke, got stuck in his crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to undermine belief in his alignment. Good news: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an committed Christian who believes that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his role as one of achieving this peak performance, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the mortal of us.

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