🔗 Share this article

Brendon McCullum despised the moniker Bazball the moment it emerged, viewing it as overly simplistic and perhaps foreseeing how it could be used as a weapon down the line. Right now, trailing 2-0 in an away Ashes series that began with great expectations, it has become the butt of Australian jokes.

But the coach has not helped himself either. After the gut-wrenching loss at the Gabba, his insistence that, if there was an issue, England were 'over-prepared' before the pink-ball match was like trying to put out a rubbish fire with gasoline. It could become his epitaph as England head coach if performances do not improve.

On one level, one must admire his commitment to the bit. As much as he says he block out outside criticism, he will have been acutely aware of an England team often described as carefree and lacking preparation.

The truth, as always, is more nuanced. England play as much golf during their necessary down time as their opponents and they practice equally hard. Prior to the Gabba Test, they trained for longer, completing five days compared to Australia's three, due to their lack of exposure to the pink ball and the changes in lighting conditions.

The Debate of Readiness and Practice

The coach's point about being "excessively ready" was that those five extra days were his call – the instance he blinked in his conviction that less is more. It meant a significant amount of mental energy was used up before they even took the field in the cauldron of Australia's fortress. While net practice are a opportunity to iron out technique, they can also become a safety blanket; zero consequence work that mainly maintains the reactions quick.

Schedules are congested such that pre-series state games were unavailable (with no guarantee, when you consider England having played three before the 5-0 series loss in 2013-14). What is harder to square is the dismissal of domestic red-ball cricket as a worthwhile exercise more broadly, evidenced by Jacob Bethell's wasted summer.

Match Deficiencies and Strategic Lack of Evolution

Match practice alone prepares cricketers for the many situations they encounter, and it is here where England have thus far fallen well short. It is not only with the bat – as poor as some of the decision-making has been – but an bowling attack that seems leaderless. No bowler has shown the patience or discipline that the otherworldly Mitchell Starc and his teammates have delivered.

The coach's free-spirit outlook was freeing during its initial year, an excellent, well diagnosed solution to eradicate the lethargy that preceded it. The frustration now comes in how it has apparently not evolved past that initial phase – an absence of an second phase to the original software that has seen form taper off to an even record from their last 30 Tests.

Squad Spotlight and Selection Decisions

One such player is Jamie Smith, a talent, undoubtedly, but one who is being constantly tested on both edges and has dropped two crucial opportunities with the gloves. It probably does not help when your counterpart, the Australian keeper, has just delivered a virtuoso performance.

Going by McCullum's comments after the match, England appear set to keep the faith with Smith in Adelaide. The expectation – as is the case – is that a return to a traditional match environment unleashes his best, with Perth's bouncy pitch and the unusual floodlit Test now in the past.

The alternative is to implement the plan discovered during the victorious series in New Zealand 12 months ago by shifting the batsman down to his more natural home as a active middle order player, handing him the gloves, and selecting a fresh face at first drop. A young contender made some runs for the Lions recently, or perhaps Will Jacks could fulfil a similar role to Moeen Ali in 2023.

Ultimately, these changes is perfect, with Australia's superior basics having destroyed pre-series optimism and forced the broader philosophy into the harsh glare of scrutiny.