🔗 Share this article

Labuschagne carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he lowers the lid of his sandwich grill. “There you go. Then you get it toasted on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the key technique,” he declares. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, it’s clear a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The alarm bells of elaborate writing are going off. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

You likely wish 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 toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of tiresome meta‑deconstruction in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I personally prefer the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Alright. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Okay, here’s the main point. How about we cover the match details initially? Small reward for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s century against Tasmania – his third of the summer in various games – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Australia top three clearly missing form and structure, shown up by the South African team in the WTC final, highlighted further in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on one hand you gathered Australia were keen to restore him at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Usman Khawaja has just one 100 in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks not quite a first-innings batsman and closer to the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. No other options has presented a strong argument. Nathan McSweeney looks finished. Another option is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of effortless self-assurance that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a game starts.

Labuschagne’s Return

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as in the recent past, freshly dropped from the one-day team, the perfect character to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: 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. “Not overthinking, just what I should bat effectively.”

Naturally, few accept this. In all likelihood this is a rebrand that exists entirely in Labuschagne’s own head: still furiously stripping down that approach from all day, going further toward simplicity than anyone else would try. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will spend months in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever played. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has always made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Perhaps before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s constant dedication. In England we have a squad for whom technical study, not to mention self-review, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Be where the ball is. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual completely dedicated with cricket and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the gaps in the game, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of absurd reverence it requires.

This approach succeeded. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to come in for a hurt Smith at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in Kent league cricket, colleagues noticed him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a meditative condition, literally visualising each delivery of his batting stint. Per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a unusually large proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to change it.

Current Struggles

It’s possible this was why his career began to disintegrate 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 stopped trusting his cover drive, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, his coach, believes a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his technique. Good news: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a man of deep religious faith, an evangelical Christian who thinks that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may look to the rest of us.

This, to my mind, has always been the primary contrast between him and the other batsman, a inherently talented player