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Marnus methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he brings down the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a toasted delight of delicious perfection, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “And that’s the secret method,” he declares. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of overly fancy prose are going off. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an national team comeback before the Ashes.

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 three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the second person. You groan once more.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I actually like the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Alright. It’s ideal.”

The Cricket Context

Look, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the cricket bit out of the way first? Small reward for making it this far. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in various games – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Australian top order seriously lacking consistency and technique, exposed by South Africa in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on a certain level you felt Australia were eager to bring him back at the first opportunity. Now he seems to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. Sam Konstas looks not quite a first-innings batsman and more like the handsome actor who might play a Test opener in a Bollywood movie. Other candidates has shown convincing form. McSweeney looks cooked. Marcus Harris is still inexplicably hanging around, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their captain, Pat Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, missing command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a game starts.

Marnus’s Comeback

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as just two years ago, just left out from the 50-over squad, the ideal candidate to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne these days: a simplified, fundamental-focused Labuschagne, no longer as maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I believe I have really simplified things,” he said after his hundred. “Not overthinking, just what I should make runs.”

Of course, this is doubted. Probably this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s own head: still endlessly adjusting that approach from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the simplest player that has ever played. That’s the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has always made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging cricketers in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a type of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a side for whom detailed examination, not to mention self-review, is a risky subject. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Smell the now.

For Australia you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the sport and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who treats this absurd sport with exactly the level of odd devotion it deserves.

His method paid off. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to come in for a hurt the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To tap into it – through absolute focus – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his time with club cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, actually imagining every single ball of his time at the crease. Per cricket statisticians, during the initial period of his career a unusually large catches were spilled from his batting. Somehow Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before anyone had a chance to affect it.

Form Issues

Perhaps this was why his career began to disintegrate the time he achieved top ranking. There were no new heights to imagine, just a empty space before his eyes. Furthermore – he began doubting his cover drive, got unable to move forward and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, reckons a focus on white-ball cricket started to weaken assurance in his technique. Encouragingly: he’s now excluded from the 50-over squad.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an religious believer who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his job as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may seem to the mortal of us.

This approach, to my mind, has long been the primary contrast between him and Smith, a inherently talented player