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Brendon McCullum detested the label Bazball since it was coined, deeming it overly simplistic and perhaps anticipating how it could be weaponised in the future. Right now, trailing 2-0 in an Test series in Australia that started with high hopes, it has become the butt of mockery from Australia.

However McCullum has contributed to the problem either. Following the crushing defeat at the Gabba, his claim that, if there was an issue, England were 'too prepared' before the day-night Test was akin to attempting to extinguish a rubbish fire with petrol. It risks becoming his lasting legacy as England head coach if results do not take an upturn.

In a way, you almost have to admire his commitment to the bit. While he says he ignore outside criticism, he will have been all too aware of an England team increasingly characterised as freewheeling and underprepared.

The reality, as always, is not so simple. England play as much golf during their scheduled breaks as their rivals and they train just as much. Prior to the Gabba Test, they trained for longer, completing five days compared to Australia's three, due to their limited experience to the pink Kookaburra ball and the changes in seeing conditions.

The Question of Readiness and Training

The coach'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 Test match's worth of mental energy was expended before they even took the field in the intensity of Australia's fortress. While net practice are a opportunity to iron out skills, they can also become a comfort zone; low-pressure work that simply keeps the reactions quick.

Schedules are congested such that warm-up matches against state sides were unavailable (and no guarantee, when you consider England playing three before the whitewash in 2013-14). What is harder to square is the disregard of county championship cricket as a valuable experience in general, evidenced by a young player's wasted summer.

On-Field Deficiencies and Philosophical Stagnation

Match practice alone hardens cricketers for the various scenarios they encounter, and it is here where England have so far fallen well short. The issue is not just with the bat – as poor as some of the decision-making has been – but an bowling attack that seems without a spearhead. None has shown the patience or discipline that the exceptional Australian paceman and his teammates have delivered.

McCullum's free-spirit approach was liberating during its first 12 months, an excellent, apt remedy to shake off the torpor that preceded it. The disappointment 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 14 wins and 14 losses from their most recent matches.

Squad Spotlight and Team Dilemmas

Among them is the wicketkeeper-batter, a gifted player, no question, but one who is being mercilessly targeted on both edges and missed two crucial opportunities as wicketkeeper. It probably does not help when your counterpart, the Australian keeper, has just delivered a masterful display.

Based on the coach's words after the match, England look likely to persist with Smith in Adelaide. The expectation – as is the case – is that a return to a more familiar Test setting unleashes his top form, with Perth's bouncy pitch and the unfamiliar day-night format now out of the way.

The alternative is to enact the plan discovered during the series win in New Zealand 12 months ago by moving the batsman down to his preferred position as a active No. 5 or 6, handing him the wicketkeeping duties, and selecting a fresh face at first drop. Bethell made some runs for the Lions over the weekend, or perhaps Will Jacks could fulfil a comparable function to the former spinner in 2023.

In the end, none of this is ideal, however Australia's better fundamentals having shattered expectations and forced the broader philosophy into the harsh glare of scrutiny.