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Labuschagne evenly coats butter on each surface of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he explains as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it crisp on each side.” He lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly browned of delicious perfection, the gooey cheese happily melting inside. “So this is the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something unexpected and strange.

By now, I sense a glaze of ennui is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland this week and is being feverishly talked up for an Australian Test recall before the England-Australia contest.

You likely wish to read more about his performance. But first – you now realise with an anguished sigh – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an further tangential section of overly analytical commentary in the “you” perspective. You feel resigned.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he states, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. Done, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”

Back to Cricket

Okay, here’s the main point. How about we cover the match details out of the way first? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may still be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tigers – his third in recent months in various games – feels importantly timed.

We have an Australia top three seriously lacking consistency and technique, shown up by the South African team in the WTC final, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that series, but on some level you sensed Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

This represents a plan that Australia need to work. The opener has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks less like a Test match opener and rather like the attractive performer who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has made a cogent case. Nathan McSweeney looks out of form. Harris is still surprisingly included, like unwanted guests. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is injured and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, short of command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a world No 1 Test batter as just two years ago, just left out from the one-day team, the right person to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a calmer and more meditative Labuschagne now: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “It seems I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not really too technical, just what I need to score runs.”

Clearly, few accept this. Most likely this is a rebrand that exists only in Labuschagne’s mind: still constantly refining that approach from all day, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will devote weeks in the nets with coaches and video clips, exhaustively remoulding himself into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the characteristic that has long made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging sportsmen in the sport.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a side for whom detailed examination, especially personal critique, is a risky subject. Go with instinct. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

On the opposite side you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a man terminally obsessed with the game and totally indifferent by others’ opinions, who sees cricket even in the gaps in the game, who handles this unusual pursuit with just the right measure of odd devotion it requires.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed the senior batsman at Lord’s 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 days playing English county cricket, fellow players saw him on the morning of a game positioned on a seat in a trance-like state, mentally rehearsing all balls of his batting stint. Per Cricviz, during the first few years of his career a statistically unfathomable proportion of catches were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had anticipated outcomes before others could react to change it.

Recent Challenges

It’s possible this was why his form started to decline the moment he reached the summit. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Additionally – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got stuck in his crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, Neil D’Costa, believes a attention to shorter formats started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Good news: he’s now excluded from the ODI side.

No doubt it’s important, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an religious believer who thinks that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his task as one of reaching this optimal zone, however enigmatic and inexplicable it may appear to the ordinary people.

This mindset, to my mind, has long been the main point of difference between him and Smith, a instinctive player