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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s the key,” he explains as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Perfect. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the secret method,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

Already, it’s clear a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an further tangential section of overly analytical commentary in the second person. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go for a hit, come back. Alright. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the sports aspect initially? Quick update for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third this season in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

We have an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking form and structure, exposed by South Africa in the World Test Championship final, highlighted further in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that series, but on one hand you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

Here is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has just one 100 in his recent 44 batting efforts. Sam Konstas looks hardly a Test match opener and closer to the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. Other candidates has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks finished. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is injured and suddenly this appears as a surprisingly weak team, missing command or stability, the kind of natural confidence that has often given Australia a lead before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, just left out from the one-day team, the ideal candidate to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne these days: a pared-down, back-to-basics Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Less focused on technique, just what I must bat effectively.”

Clearly, nobody truly believes this. In all likelihood this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still endlessly adjusting that approach from dawn to dusk, going further toward simplicity than anyone has ever dared. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the nets with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever existed. This is just the quality of the focused, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating cricketers in the sport.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this highly uncertain Ashes series, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. For England we have a side for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Live in the instant.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who approaches this quirky game with precisely the amount of absurd reverence it requires.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to substitute for an injured Steve Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his days playing club cricket, teammates would find him on the game day sitting on a park bench in a meditative condition, actually imagining every single ball of his innings. According to the analytics firm, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were missed when he batted. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to influence it.

Form Issues

It’s possible 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. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his mentor, his coach, believes a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his positioning. Positive development: he’s just been dropped from the 50-over squad.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an religious believer who believes that this is all preordained, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may seem to the rest of us.

This mindset, to my mind, has long been the key distinction between him and the other batsman, a inherently talented player