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Labuschagne methodically applies butter on the top and bottom of a slice of soft bread. “That’s essential,” he tells the camera as he lowers the lid of his toastie maker. “Boom. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He lifts the lid to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the gooey cheese happily sizzling within. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he declares. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

By now, it’s clear a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The alarm bells of elaborate writing are blinking intensely. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne made 160 runs for Queensland Bulls this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the Ashes series.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about toasted sandwiches, plus an further tangential section of self-referential analysis in the second person. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and walks across the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he announces, “but I actually like the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, head to practice, come back. Boom. Toastie’s ready to go.”

The Cricket Context

Look, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the cricket bit initially? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may be just six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels quietly decisive.

This is an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking consistency and technique, revealed against the South African team in the World Test Championship final, exposed again in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was dropped during that trip, but on a certain level you sensed Australia were eager to bring him back at the soonest moment. Now he seems to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a strategy Australia must implement. Usman Khawaja has one century in his past 44 innings. Konstas looks less like a Test match opener and more like the good-looking star who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has made a cogent case. One contender looks cooked. Another option is still surprisingly included, like dust or mold. Meanwhile their skipper, Cummins, is hurt and suddenly this feels like a unusually thin squad, missing authority or balance, the kind of built-in belief that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a ball is bowled.

Labuschagne’s Return

Enter Marnus: a leading Test player as recently as 2023, just left out from the one-day team, the perfect character to restore order to a fragile lineup. And we are told this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne now: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really cut out extras,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I should score runs.”

Clearly, this is doubted. Probably this is a new approach that exists just in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that technique from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the training with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the least technical batter that has ever been seen. That’s the nature of the addict, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the game.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this very open England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s endless focus. In England we have a team for whom any kind of analysis, especially personal critique, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Trust your gut. Stay in the moment. Live in the instant.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of odd devotion it requires.

And it worked. During his shamanic phase – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to until late 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through sheer intensity of will – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his days playing English county cricket, teammates would find him on the game day positioned on a seat in a meditative condition, mentally rehearsing every single ball of his time at the crease. According to Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a unusually large catches were dropped off his bat. In some way Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before fielders could respond to influence it.

Current Struggles

It’s possible this was why his career began to disintegrate the moment he reached the summit. There were no further goals to picture, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Additionally – he began doubting his signature shot, got trapped on the crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his mentor, Neil D’Costa, reckons a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his alignment. Good news: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who believes that this is all preordained, who thus sees his task as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may look to the rest of us.

This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the primary contrast between him and Smith, a instinctive player