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Brendon McCullum detested the moniker Bazball from its inception, deeming it 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 become the butt of Australian jokes.

However McCullum has not helped himself either. After the crushing defeat at the Gabba, his insistence that, if anything, England were 'over-prepared' before the day-night Test was akin to attempting to extinguish a rubbish fire with petrol. It risks becoming his lasting legacy as national coach if performances do not take an upturn.

In a way, you almost have to admire his commitment to the bit. While McCullum claims to block out external noise, he will have been all too aware of an England team often described as freewheeling and lacking preparation.

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. Prior to the Gabba Test, they did more, logging five days compared to Australia's three, given their limited experience to the pink Kookaburra ball and the changes in lighting conditions.

The Question of Preparation and Practice

The coach's point about being "over-prepared" was that those additional training days were his call – the instance he wavered in his belief that minimal preparation is best. It meant a Test match's worth of mental energy was expended before they even took the field in the intensity of Australia's stronghold. And though nets are a opportunity to iron out skills, they can also become a comfort zone; low-pressure work that simply maintains the reactions quick.

Fixtures are congested such that pre-series state games were unavailable (with uncertain value, as shown by England playing three before the whitewash in 2013-14). More difficult to justify is the dismissal of county championship cricket as a worthwhile exercise more broadly, evidenced by a young player's wasted summer.

Match Deficiencies and Strategic Lack of Evolution

Match practice alone hardens cricketers for the many situations they walk out to face, and it is in this area where England have so far fallen well short. The issue is not just 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 patience or control that the otherworldly Australian paceman and his teammates have displayed.

The coach's unconventional outlook was liberating during its initial year, an excellent, well diagnosed solution to eradicate the torpor that preceded it. The disappointment now comes in how it has seemingly failed to move beyond that initial phase – an absence of an second phase to the original software that has seen results decline to an even record from their most recent matches.

Player Spotlight and Team Dilemmas

One such player is Jamie Smith, a talent, no question, but one who is being constantly tested on both edges and missed two key chances as wicketkeeper. It probably does not help when your counterpart, Alex Carey, has just delivered a masterful performance.

Based on McCullum's comments after the match, England look likely to keep the faith with Smith in Adelaide. The expectation – similar to the broader situation – is that a return to a more familiar Test setting triggers his top form, with Perth's trampoline surface and the unfamiliar day-night format now in the past.

Another option is to enact the plan discovered during the victorious series in New Zealand 12 months ago by shifting the batsman down to his preferred position as a busy No. 5 or 6, handing him the wicketkeeping duties, and picking a new No 3. Bethell scored runs for the Lions over the weekend, or maybe an all-rounder could perform a similar role to Moeen Ali in 2023.

In the end, these changes is ideal, however Australia's better fundamentals having shattered pre-series optimism and forced the team's entire approach into the spotlight.