The Australian batsman methodically applies butter on both sides of a slice of white bread. “That’s the secret,” he states as he lowers the lid of his grilled cheese press. “Perfect. Then you get it toasted on both sides.” He opens the grill to reveal a perfectly browned of pure toasted goodness, the melted cheese happily melting inside. “Here’s the trick of the trade,” he announces. At which point, he does something horrific and unspeakable.
Already, it’s clear a sense of disinterest is beginning to appear in your eyes. The warning signs of sportswriting pretension are blinking intensely. You’re probably aware that Labuschagne scored 160 for Queensland Bulls this week and is being eagerly promoted for an return to the Test side before the Ashes series.
No doubt you’d prefer to read more about that. But first – you now grasp with irritation – you’re going to have to sit through several lines of wobbling whimsy about toasties, plus an additional unnecessary part of self-referential analysis in the second person. You sigh again.
Labuschagne flips the sandwich on to a dish and moves toward the fridge. “Few try this,” he states, “but I actually like the grilled sandwich chilled. Done, in the fridge. You get that cheese to harden up, go bat, come back. Perfect. Toastie’s ready to go.”
On-Field Matters
Look, here’s the main point. Let’s address the cricket bit initially? Quick update for your patience. And while there may still be six weeks until the first Test, Labuschagne’s hundred against Tasmania – his third of the summer in all formats – feels quietly decisive.
We have an Australian top order badly short of form and structure, shown up by South Africa in the Test championship decider, shown up once more in the West Indies after that. Labuschagne was left out during that series, 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 plan that Australia need to work. Usman Khawaja has a single hundred in his past 44 innings. The young batsman looks less like a first-innings batsman and closer to the handsome actor who might portray a cricketer in a Bollywood epic. Other candidates has made a cogent case. McSweeney looks out of form. Another option is still inexplicably hanging around, like moths or damp. Meanwhile their leader, Cummins, is unfit and suddenly this seems like a unusually thin squad, short of strength or equilibrium, the kind of natural confidence that has often helped Australia dominate before a match begins.
The Batsman’s Revival
Here comes Labuschagne: a top-ranked Test batsman as just two years ago, recently omitted from the ODI side, the perfect character to restore order to a brittle empire. And we are told this is a more relaxed and thoughtful Labuschagne currently: a streamlined, no-frills Labuschagne, no longer as intensely fixated with small details. “I feel like I’ve really stripped it back,” he said after his century. “Not really too technical, just what I need to score runs.”
Naturally, few accept this. Most likely this is a fresh image that exists only in Labuschagne’s personal view: still constantly refining that method from morning to night, going further toward simplicity than any player has attempted. Prefer simplicity? Marnus will take time in the practice sessions with advisors and replays, completely transforming into the most basic batsman that has ever played. This is just the nature of the addict, and the quality that has long made Labuschagne one of the highly engaging players in the game.
Wider Context
Maybe before this highly uncertain England-Australia contest, there is even a sort of interesting contrast to Labuschagne’s endless focus. On England’s side we have a side for whom any kind of analysis, let alone self-analysis, is a kind of dangerous taboo. Go with instinct. Stay in the moment. Smell the now.
On the opposite side you have a individual like Labuschagne, a player terminally obsessed with the sport and magnificently unbothered by others’ opinions, who observes cricket even in the moments outside play, who treats this absurd sport with just the right measure of odd devotion it requires.
His method paid off. During his intense period – from the time he walked out to replace a concussed the senior batsman at the famous ground in 2019 to around the end of 2022 – Labuschagne found a way to see the game on another level. To tap into it – through pure determination – on a higher, weirder, more frenzied level. During his time with Kent league cricket, teammates would find him on the morning of a game sitting on a park bench in a trance-like state, literally visualising each delivery of his batting stint. According to Cricviz, during the initial period of his career a surprisingly high proportion of catches were spilled from his batting. Remarkably Labuschagne had intuited what would happen before fielders could respond to change it.
Form Issues
Maybe 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. Additionally – he stopped trusting his cover drive, got trapped on the crease and seemed to lose awareness of his stumps. But it’s part of the same issue. Meanwhile his coach, D’Costa, reckons a emphasis on limited-overs started to weaken assurance in his positioning. Encouragingly: he’s recently omitted from the one-day team.
Surely it matters, too, that Labuschagne is a devoutly religious individual, an evangelical Christian who believes that this is all predetermined, who thus sees his job as one of accessing this state of flow, despite being puzzling it may appear to the ordinary people.
This approach, to my mind, has consistently been the main point of difference between him and Smith, a more naturally gifted player
