🔗 Share this article

The England head coach despised the label Bazball since it was coined, viewing it as overly simplistic and perhaps foreseeing how it could be weaponised in the future. Currently, down 2-0 in an Test series in Australia that started with great expectations, it has turned into the subject of Australian jokes.

But McCullum has contributed to the problem either. Following the gut-wrenching defeat at the Gabba, his claim that, if anything, England were 'over-prepared' prior to the day-night Test was like attempting to extinguish a rubbish fire with gasoline. It could become his epitaph as national coach if performances do not take an upturn.

On one level, one must admire his commitment to the bit. While McCullum says he ignore external noise, he must have been all too aware of an England team increasingly characterised as carefree and underprepared.

The reality, as ever, is not so simple. England enjoy golf just as much during their necessary down time as their opponents and they practice equally hard. Before the Gabba Test, they trained for longer, logging five days compared to Australia's three, due to their limited experience to the pink Kookaburra ball and the different lighting conditions.

The Question of Readiness and Training

McCullum's point about being "over-prepared" was that those additional training days were his call – the moment he blinked in his belief that less is more. It suggested a significant amount of mental energy was used up before they even stepped out in the intensity of Australia's stronghold. While net practice are a chance to refine technique, they can also become a comfort zone; zero consequence work that mainly keeps the reactions quick.

Schedules are congested such that warm-up matches against state sides were unavailable (with uncertain value, when you consider England playing three before the 5-0 series loss in 2013-14). What is harder to square is the dismissal of county championship cricket as a valuable experience in general, as shown by a young player's wasted summer.

On-Field Shortcomings and Philosophical Lack of Evolution

Match practice alone prepares cricketers for the various scenarios they encounter, and it is in this area where England have thus far been found lacking. It is not only with the batting – harrowing as some of the shot selection has been – but an attack that seems without a spearhead. None has demonstrated the patience or discipline that the otherworldly Australian paceman and his teammates have delivered.

McCullum's unconventional outlook was freeing during its first 12 months, an excellent, well diagnosed remedy to shake off the torpor that preceded it. The frustration now stems from how it has apparently failed to move beyond that initial phase – an absence of an second phase to the initial philosophy that has seen form taper off to an even record from their last 30 Tests.

Squad Focus and Team Decisions

Among them is the wicketkeeper-batter, a gifted player, no question, but one who is being mercilessly targeted on both edges and has dropped two crucial opportunities with the gloves. The situation is not aided when your opposite number, the Australian keeper, has just delivered a masterful display.

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

The alternative is to enact the plan stumbled across during the series win in New Zealand last year by moving Ollie Pope down to his preferred position as a busy No. 5 or 6, giving him the wicketkeeping duties, and picking a new No 3. Bethell scored runs for the Lions over the weekend, or perhaps an all-rounder could fulfil a similar role 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.