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Labuschagne carefully spreads butter on the top and bottom of a slice of plain bread. “That’s the secret,” he tells the camera as he closes the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it golden on each side.” He checks inside to reveal a perfectly browned of delicious perfection, the gooey cheese happily sizzling within. “So this is the key technique,” he explains. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

By now, it’s clear a layer of boredom is beginning to form across your eyes. The alarm bells of overly fancy prose are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne made 160 runs for his state team this week and is being eagerly promoted for an Australian Test recall before the England-Australia contest.

You probably want to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to endure three paragraphs of playful digression about toasted sandwiches, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You groan once more.

He turns the sandwich on to a serving plate and walks across the fridge. “Few try this,” he announces, “but I actually like the cold toastie. There, in the fridge. You allow the cheese to set, go bat, come back. Boom. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Look, to cut to the chase. Shall we get the cricket bit to begin with? Little treat for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the series opener, Labuschagne’s century against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in all formats – feels importantly timed.

Here’s an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking performance and method, exposed by the Proteas in the WTC final, highlighted further in the Caribbean afterwards. Labuschagne was left out during that tour, but on a certain level you gathered Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

And this is a approach the team should follow. Khawaja has a single hundred in his recent 44 batting efforts. The young batsman looks hardly a Test match opener and more like the handsome actor who might portray a cricketer in a Indian film. No other options has presented a strong argument. McSweeney looks cooked. Harris is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Pat Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this appears as a unusually thin squad, lacking command or stability, the kind of built-in belief that has often given Australia a lead before a game starts.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a leading Test player as in the recent past, just left out from the 50-over squad, the right person to bring stability to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a pared-down, no-frills Labuschagne, less intensely fixated with technical minutiae. “I feel like I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Not really too technical, just what I need to make runs.”

Clearly, few accept this. Probably this is a rebrand that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still endlessly adjusting that technique from morning to night, going deeper into fundamentals than anyone has ever dared. Like basic approach? Marnus will take time in the nets with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever played. That’s the nature of the addict, and the trait that has long made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging sportsmen in the game.

Wider Context

Perhaps before this very open England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. In England we have a squad for whom any kind of analysis, not to mention self-review, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Feel the flavours. Focus on the present. Live in the instant.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual terminally obsessed with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by who knows about it, who observes cricket even in the spaces between the cricket, who approaches this quirky game with just the right measure of quirky respect it deserves.

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 around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne was able to see the game with greater insight. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his stint in English county cricket, teammates would find him on the day of a match resting on a bench in a focused mindset, actually imagining all balls of his batting stint. Per 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 others could react to affect it.

Form Issues

Maybe this was why his career began to disintegrate the point he became number one. There were no new heights to imagine, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Furthermore – he lost faith in his favorite stroke, got stuck in his crease and seemed to forget where his off-stump was. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to erode confidence in his alignment. Positive development: he’s now excluded from the one-day team.

Certainly it’s relevant, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who holds that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his role as one of accessing this state of flow, no matter how mysterious it may appear to the ordinary people.

This mindset, to my mind, has consistently been the primary contrast between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player