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Marnus evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the key technique,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

Already, you may feel a sense of disinterest is beginning to cover your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are going off. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for his state team this week and is being widely discussed for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about that. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure a section of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of overly analytical commentary in the direct address. You groan once more.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a serving plate and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he announces, “but I genuinely enjoy the cold toastie. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Perfect. It’s ideal.”

On-Field Matters

Okay, to cut to the chase. How about we cover the cricket bit 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 Tigers – his third of the summer in various games – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australia top three badly short of performance and method, shown up by the Proteas in the World Test Championship final, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was dropped during that tour, but on one hand you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the earliest chance. Now he seems to have given them the ideal reason.

Here is a plan that Australia need to work. The opener has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. Sam Konstas looks less like a first-innings batsman and closer to the attractive performer who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has shown convincing form. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, short of command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

Labuschagne’s Return

Step forward Marnus: a leading Test player as in the recent past, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to bring stability to a brittle empire. And we are informed this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I must bat effectively.”

Clearly, this is doubted. Probably this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still furiously stripping down that technique from morning to night, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with coaches and video clips, thoroughly reshaping his game into the simplest player that has ever existed. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing sportsmen in the sport.

The Broader Picture

It could be before this highly uncertain historic rivalry, there is even a type of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. For England we have a squad for whom detailed examination, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

For Australia you have a player such as Labuschagne, a man utterly absorbed with the sport and wonderfully unconcerned by public perception, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of absurd reverence it demands.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the instant he appeared to replace a concussed the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To access it – through pure determination – on a different, unusual, intense plane. During his stint in English county cricket, colleagues noticed him on the game day resting on a bench in a meditative condition, literally visualising every single ball of his batting stint. Per cricket statisticians, during the first few years of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to change it.

Current Struggles

Maybe this was why his form started to decline the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Additionally – he lost faith in his signature shot, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, D’Costa, thinks a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his alignment. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may appear to the ordinary people.

This, to my mind, has long been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a more naturally gifted player