🔗 Share this article

Brendon McCullum loathed the label Bazball the moment it emerged, considering it reductive and maybe foreseeing how it might be used as a weapon down the line. Right now, trailing 2-0 in an Test series in Australia that started with great expectations, it has turned into the subject of Australian jokes.

But the coach has not helped himself either. After the crushing loss at the Gabba, his claim that, if anything, England were 'too prepared' prior to the day-night Test was akin to attempting to extinguish a bin fire with gasoline. It could become his epitaph as national coach if performances do not improve.

On one level, you almost have to admire his dedication to the philosophy. As much as he claims to block out external noise, he will have been acutely aware of an England team increasingly characterised as carefree and underprepared.

The truth, as always, is more nuanced. England play as much golf during their necessary down time as their rivals and they practice equally hard. Before the Gabba Test, they trained for longer, completing five days compared to Australia's three, due to their limited experience to the pink ball and the different seeing conditions.

The Debate of Readiness and Practice

The coach's point about being "over-prepared" was that those five extra days were his call – the moment 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. And though nets are a opportunity to refine skills, they can also become a safety blanket; low-pressure work that mainly keeps the reflexes sharp.

Schedules are tight such that pre-series state games were not possible (and uncertain value, when you consider England having played three before the whitewash in 2013-14). What is harder to square is the disregard of county championship cricket as a worthwhile exercise more broadly, as shown by Jacob Bethell's wasted summer.

On-Field Deficiencies and Strategic Lack of Evolution

Only playing hardens cricketers for the many situations they encounter, and it is here where England have thus far been found lacking. It is not only with the bat – harrowing as some of the shot selection has been – but an attack that seems leaderless. None has demonstrated the patience or control that the otherworldly Australian paceman and his teammates have delivered.

McCullum's free-spirit outlook was liberating during its initial year, an effective, well diagnosed solution to eradicate the lethargy that preceded it. The disappointment now comes in how it has apparently failed to move beyond that initial phase – the lack of an second phase to the original software that has seen form taper off to 14 wins and 14 losses from their last 30 Tests.

Player Spotlight and Team Dilemmas

One such player is the wicketkeeper-batter, a talent, undoubtedly, but one who is being mercilessly targeted on each side of the bat and missed two crucial opportunities as wicketkeeper. The situation is not aided when your opposite number, the Australian keeper, has just delivered a virtuoso performance.

Based on the coach's words after the match, England look likely to keep the faith with Smith in Adelaide. The hope – as is the case – is that a return to a more familiar match environment triggers his best, with Perth's bouncy pitch and the unusual day-night format now out of the way.

Another option is to enact the plan stumbled across during the victorious series in New Zealand 12 months ago by moving the batsman down to his preferred position as a busy No. 5 or 6, giving him the gloves, and selecting a new No 3. Bethell scored runs for the Lions over the weekend, or perhaps an all-rounder could fulfil a comparable function to the former spinner in 2023.

Ultimately, none of this is perfect, with Australia's superior basics having shattered expectations and forced the team's entire approach into the harsh glare of scrutiny.