🔗 Share this article

The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he brings down the lid of his sandwich grill. “Boom. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the gooey cheese happily bubbling away. “Here’s the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, you may feel a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The red lights of sportswriting pretension are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being feverishly talked up for an return to the Test side before the Ashes.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of light-hearted musing about toasties, plus an further tangential section of overly analytical commentary in the direct address. You sigh again.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Boom. It’s ideal.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, to cut to the chase. Let’s address the match details to begin with? Quick update for your patience. And while there may only be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in various games – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Australia top three clearly missing form and structure, revealed against South Africa in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the following Caribbean tour. Labuschagne was dropped during that series, but on some level you felt Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he looks to have given them the ideal reason.

This represents a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has one century in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks less like a Test match opener and more like the attractive performer who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still oddly present, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is injured and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, missing command or stability, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

The Batsman’s Revival

Enter Marnus: a world No 1 Test batter as recently as 2023, just left out from the 50-over squad, the right person to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, not as extremely focused with technical minutiae. “I believe I have really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Not really too technical, just what I need to bat effectively.”

Naturally, nobody truly believes this. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still constantly refining that approach from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, completely transforming into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. This is just the quality of the focused, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the deeply fascinating players in the game.

Wider Context

Maybe before this inscrutably unpredictable Ashes series, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a squad for whom technical study, especially personal critique, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Embrace the current.

For Australia you have a individual like Labuschagne, a man completely dedicated with the sport and wonderfully unconcerned by who knows about it, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of absurd reverence it requires.

This approach succeeded. During his focused era – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game on another level. To access it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with Kent league cricket, fellow players saw him on the morning of a game positioned on a seat in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing every single ball of his innings. Per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a surprisingly high catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before others could react to influence it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his performance dipped the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a empty space before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he stopped trusting his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, thinks a focus on white-ball cricket started to undermine belief in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, 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 instinctive player