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Brendon McCullum loathed the moniker Bazball since it was coined, considering it reductive and perhaps foreseeing how it might be weaponised in the future. Currently, trailing 2-0 in an away Ashes series that began with high hopes, it has turned into the subject of mockery from Australia.

But the coach has contributed to the problem either. Following the crushing defeat at the Gabba, his insistence that, if anything, England were 'over-prepared' prior to the pink-ball match was like trying to put out a bin fire with gasoline. It risks becoming his epitaph as England head coach if performances do not take an upturn.

On one level, you almost have to admire his commitment to the bit. As much as he claims to block out external noise, he must have been all too aware of an England team often described as freewheeling and underprepared.

The reality, as always, is more nuanced. England enjoy golf just as much during their scheduled breaks as their opponents and they train just as much. Prior to the Gabba Test, they did more, completing five days compared to Australia's three, due to their lack of exposure to the pink Kookaburra ball and the changes in seeing conditions.

The Question of Preparation and Training

McCullum's point about being "over-prepared" was that those additional training days were his call – the instance he blinked in his belief that less is more. It suggested a significant amount of focus was used up before they even took the field in the intensity of Australia's fortress. While nets are a opportunity to iron out skills, they can also become a safety blanket; zero consequence activity that simply maintains the reflexes sharp.

Schedules are congested such that pre-series state games were unavailable (and uncertain value, as shown by England playing three before the whitewash in 2013-14). What is harder to square is the disregard of domestic red-ball cricket as a worthwhile exercise more broadly, evidenced by a young player's wasted summer.

On-Field Deficiencies and Strategic Stagnation

Only playing hardens cricketers for the various scenarios they walk out to face, and it is here where England have so far fallen well short. It is not only with the batting – harrowing as some of the shot selection has been – but an bowling attack that seems without a spearhead. No bowler has demonstrated the persistence or discipline that the otherworldly Australian paceman and his teammates have delivered.

The coach's unconventional outlook was freeing during its first 12 months, an effective, apt remedy to eradicate the torpor 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 most recent matches.

Player Focus and Selection Dilemmas

One such player is Jamie Smith, a gifted player, undoubtedly, but one who is being mercilessly targeted on both edges and missed two crucial opportunities as wicketkeeper. The situation is not aided when your counterpart, the Australian keeper, has just produced a masterful display.

Based on McCullum's words after the match, England appear set to keep the faith with Smith in Adelaide. The expectation – similar to the broader situation – is that a switch to a traditional match environment triggers his top form, with Perth's trampoline surface and the unfamiliar floodlit Test now out of the way.

The alternative is to enact the plan discovered during the victorious series in New Zealand 12 months ago by shifting Ollie Pope down to his more natural home as a active No. 5 or 6, giving him the gloves, and picking a new No 3. Bethell scored runs for the Lions recently, or perhaps Will Jacks could fulfil a comparable function to the former spinner in 2023.

Ultimately, none of this is ideal, however Australia's better fundamentals having destroyed pre-series optimism and forced the team's entire approach into the spotlight.