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Marnus evenly coats butter on the top and bottom of a slice of white bread. “That’s essential,” he explains as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “There you go. Then you get it golden on the outside.” He checks inside to reveal a toasted delight of pure toasted goodness, the bubbling cheese happily sizzling within. “And that’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.

At this stage, I sense a sense of disinterest is beginning to form across your eyes. The warning signs of elaborate writing are flashing wildly. You’re likely conscious that Labuschagne hit 160 for Queensland this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the England-Australia contest.

No doubt you’d prefer to read more about his performance. But first – you now understand with frustration – you’re going to have to sit through a section of wobbling whimsy about toasties, plus an extra unwanted bonus paragraph of self-referential analysis in the direct address. You feel resigned.

Marnus transfers the sandwich on to a serving plate and moves toward the fridge. “It’s uncommon,” he remarks, “but I genuinely enjoy the toastie cold. Boom, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go for a hit, come back. Alright. Sandwich is perfect.”

The Cricket Context

Look, let’s try it like this. Let’s address the sports aspect to begin with? Quick update for reading until now. And while there may only be six weeks until the initial match, Labuschagne’s 100 runs against the Tasmanian side – his third of the summer in all cricket – feels significantly impactful.

Here’s an Australia top three seriously lacking performance and method, exposed by South Africa in the WTC final, highlighted further in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was omitted during that trip, but on one hand you gathered Australia were desperate to rehabilitate him at the first opportunity. Now he appears to have given them the perfect excuse.

And this is a approach the team should follow. The opener has just one 100 in his past 44 innings. Sam Konstas looks less like a first-innings batsman and more like the handsome actor who might act as a batsman in a Indian film. Other candidates has made a cogent case. McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still oddly present, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their captain, the pace bowler, is injured and suddenly this feels like a surprisingly weak team, missing strength or equilibrium, the kind of built-in belief that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.

Marnus’s Comeback

Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as in the recent past, freshly dropped from the one-day team, the perfect character to return structure to a fragile lineup. And we are advised this is a composed and reflective Labuschagne these days: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, less maniacally obsessed with technical minutiae. “It seems I’ve really simplified things,” he said after his century. “Less focused on technique, just what I should score runs.”

Of course, few accept this. Probably this is a new approach that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still endlessly adjusting that approach from all day, going more back to basics than any player has attempted. Like basic approach? Marnus will spend months in the practice sessions with trainers and footage, exhaustively remoulding himself into the least technical batter that has ever existed. This is simply the trait of the obsessed, and the quality that has consistently made Labuschagne one of the most wildly absorbing cricketers in the cricket.

Bigger Scene

It could be before this inscrutably unpredictable England-Australia contest, there is even a kind of appealing difference to Labuschagne’s unquenchable obsession. On England’s side we have a side for whom technical study, let alone self-analysis, is a forbidden topic. Feel the flavours. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.

In the other corner you have a individual like Labuschagne, a individual terminally obsessed with the game and totally indifferent by public perception, who sees cricket even in the moments outside play, who treats this absurd sport with precisely the amount of quirky respect it deserves.

His method paid off. During his shamanic phase – from the instant he appeared to substitute for an injured the senior batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne somehow managed to see the game with greater insight. To reach it – through absolute focus – 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 meditative condition, literally visualising all balls of his innings. According to Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high number of chances were missed when he batted. In some way Labuschagne had predicted events before fielders could respond to affect it.

Current Struggles

Perhaps this was why his form started to decline the time he achieved top ranking. There were no worlds left to visualise, just a boundless, uncharted void before his eyes. Additionally – he lost faith in his favorite stroke, got stuck in his crease and seemed to misjudge his positioning. But it’s connected really. Meanwhile his trainer, D’Costa, believes a attention to shorter formats started to erode confidence in his technique. Good news: he’s just been dropped from the ODI side.

Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a strongly faithful person, an committed Christian who thinks that this is all basically written out in advance, who thus sees his role as one of reaching this optimal zone, despite being puzzling it may appear to the ordinary people.

This approach, to my mind, has always been the main point of difference between him and Steve Smith, a more naturally gifted player