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Labuschagne carefully spreads butter on both sides of a slice of plain bread. “That’s essential,” he explains as he closes the lid of his sandwich grill. “Perfect. Then you get it golden on each side.” He opens the grill to reveal a golden square of ideal crispiness, the bubbling cheese happily bubbling away. “And that’s the secret method,” he explains. At which point, he does something shocking and odd.

At this stage, you may feel a glaze of ennui is beginning to appear in your eyes. The red lights of elaborate writing are blinking intensely. You’re no doubt informed that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland this week and is being widely discussed for an national team comeback before the Ashes series.

You likely wish to read more about cricket matters. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through three paragraphs of wobbling whimsy about grilled cheese, plus an further tangential section of overly analytical commentary in the direct address. You sigh again.

Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a plate and heads over the fridge. “Not many people do this,” he remarks, “but I actually like the grilled sandwich chilled. Boom, in the fridge. You let the cheese firm up, go for a hit, come back. Perfect. Sandwich is perfect.”

Back to Cricket

Alright, here’s the main point. Let’s address the match details initially? Quick update for your patience. And while there may be just six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s century against the Tigers – his third this season in all formats – feels significantly impactful.

This is an Aussie opening batsmen seriously lacking performance and method, revealed against the South African team in the Test championship decider, exposed again in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that tour, but on some level you felt Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the soonest moment. Now he appears to have given them the right opportunity.

This represents a plan that Australia need to work. Khawaja has just one 100 in his last 44 knocks. The young batsman looks hardly a Test opener and closer to the handsome actor who might play a Test opener in a Indian film. None of the alternatives has shown convincing form. One contender looks cooked. Another option is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a weirdly lightweight side, lacking command or stability, the kind of natural confidence that has often put Australia 2-0 up before a game starts.

The Batsman’s Revival

Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as just two years ago, just left out from the 50-over squad, the perfect character to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne now: a simplified, no-frills Labuschagne, not as intensely fixated with minor adjustments. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his ton. “Not overthinking, just what I should score runs.”

Naturally, this is doubted. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists just in Labuschagne’s personal view: still furiously stripping down that method from dawn to dusk, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. You want less technical? Marnus will devote weeks in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, completely transforming into the simplest player that has ever played. That’s the quality of the focused, and the trait that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the cricket.

The Broader Picture

Maybe before this very open historic rivalry, there is even a kind of pleasing dissonance to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. In England we have a side for whom detailed examination, especially personal critique, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

In the other corner you have a batsman like Labuschagne, a player utterly absorbed with the game and wonderfully unconcerned by public perception, who finds cricket even in the gaps in the game, who treats this absurd sport with precisely the amount of absurd reverence it demands.

And it worked. During his intense period – from the moment he strode out to replace a concussed Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to through 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game on another level. To reach it – through pure determination – on a elevated, strange, passionate tier. During his stint in Kent league cricket, fellow players saw him on the game day resting on a bench in a focused mindset, mentally rehearsing each delivery of his time at the crease. Per cricket statisticians, during the early stages of his career a statistically unfathomable number of chances were dropped off his bat. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before fielders could respond to influence it.

Recent Challenges

Perhaps this was why his career began to disintegrate the point he became number one. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a unknown territory before his eyes. Also – to be fair – he lost faith in his signature shot, got unable to move forward and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s all the same thing. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, believes a emphasis on limited-overs started to undermine belief in his technique. Encouragingly: 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 preordained, who thus sees his job as one of achieving this peak performance, no matter how mysterious it may look to the ordinary people.

This mindset, to my mind, has always been the main point of difference between him and the other batsman, a instinctive player