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The England head coach despised the moniker Bazball since it was coined, deeming it reductive and maybe foreseeing how it could be used as a weapon down the line. Currently, trailing 2-0 in an away Ashes series that began with high hopes, it has become the butt of mockery from Australia.

However the coach has contributed to the problem either. After the crushing loss at the Gabba, his insistence that, if there was an issue, England were 'over-prepared' prior to the day-night Test was akin to trying to put out a bin fire with gasoline. It risks becoming his epitaph as England head coach if results do not take an upturn.

In a way, you almost have to admire his dedication to the philosophy. While McCullum says he block out outside criticism, he must have been acutely aware of an England team increasingly characterised as carefree and lacking preparation.

The truth, as always, is not so simple. 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 to Australia's three, given their lack of exposure to the pink Kookaburra ball and the different seeing conditions.

The Question of Preparation and Training

McCullum's point about being "excessively ready" was that those five extra days were his call – the moment he blinked in his conviction that minimal preparation is best. It meant a significant amount of mental energy was used up before they even stepped out in the intensity of Australia's fortress. And though nets are a opportunity to refine skills, they can also become a safety blanket; zero consequence activity that mainly maintains the reflexes sharp.

Schedules are tight such that warm-up matches against state sides were unavailable (with no guarantee, when you consider 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 Jacob Bethell's wasted summer.

Match Shortcomings and Strategic Lack of Evolution

Only playing hardens cricketers for the various scenarios they walk out to face, and it is in this area where England have so far been found lacking. It is not only with the bat – as poor as some of the decision-making has been – but an attack that seems leaderless. None has shown the patience or discipline that the exceptional Mitchell Starc and his teammates have delivered.

McCullum's free-spirit approach was liberating during its initial year, an effective, apt solution to eradicate the lethargy that preceded it. The disappointment now comes in how it has apparently failed to move beyond that initial phase – an absence of an second phase to the original software that has seen form decline to 14 wins and 14 losses from their most recent matches.

Squad Spotlight and Selection Dilemmas

One such player is the wicketkeeper-batter, a gifted player, no question, but one who is being mercilessly targeted on both edges and has dropped two key chances with the gloves. The situation is not aided when your counterpart, the Australian keeper, has just delivered a virtuoso performance.

Going by the coach's words after the match, England look likely to keep the faith with Smith in Adelaide. The expectation – similar to the broader situation – is that a switch to a traditional Test setting triggers his top form, with Perth's bouncy pitch and the unfamiliar floodlit Test now in the past.

The alternative is to enact the plan discovered during the series win in New Zealand 12 months ago by moving Ollie Pope down to his preferred position as a active middle order player, handing him the gloves, and picking a new No 3. Bethell scored runs for the Lions over the weekend, or perhaps an all-rounder could perform a comparable function to Moeen Ali in 2023.

In the end, these changes is perfect, however Australia's superior basics having destroyed pre-series optimism and pushed the team's entire approach into the spotlight.