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The England head coach loathed the moniker Bazball since it was coined, considering it reductive and maybe foreseeing how it might be used as a weapon in the future. Currently, trailing 2-0 in an Test series in Australia that began with high hopes, it has become the butt of mockery from Australia.

However McCullum has not helped himself either. Following the crushing loss at the Gabba, his insistence that, if there was an issue, England were 'over-prepared' before the day-night Test was like trying to put out a bin fire with petrol. It risks becoming his lasting legacy as national coach if results do not improve.

In a way, one must admire his dedication to the philosophy. While he says he block out external noise, he must have been all too aware of an England team often described as freewheeling and underprepared.

The reality, as always, is not so simple. England play as much golf during their necessary down time as their opponents and they practice equally hard. Prior to the Gabba Test, they did more, completing five days to Australia's three, given their lack of exposure to the pink ball and the changes in seeing conditions.

The Question of Readiness and Practice

McCullum's point about being "over-prepared" was that those additional training days were his call – the moment he blinked in his conviction that less is more. It meant a significant amount of focus was used up before they even stepped out in the cauldron of Australia's fortress. And though nets are a opportunity to iron out technique, they can also become a safety blanket; zero consequence activity that simply keeps the reactions quick.

Fixtures are congested such that pre-series state games were unavailable (with no guarantee, when you consider England playing three before the whitewash in 2013-14). More difficult to justify is the disregard of domestic red-ball cricket as a valuable experience more broadly, evidenced by a young player's wasted summer.

On-Field Shortcomings and Philosophical Stagnation

Match practice alone hardens cricketers for the various scenarios they walk out to face, and it is in this area where England have thus far fallen well short. It is not only with the batting – as poor as some of the decision-making has been – but an bowling attack that seems leaderless. No bowler has shown the patience or control that the otherworldly Australian paceman and his teammates have delivered.

McCullum's free-spirit approach was freeing during its first 12 months, an effective, well diagnosed solution to shake off the torpor that came before. The frustration now comes in how it has seemingly not evolved past that initial phase – an absence of an second phase to the initial philosophy that has seen results decline to an even record from their last 30 Tests.

Player Focus and Team Dilemmas

Among them is the wicketkeeper-batter, a gifted player, undoubtedly, but one who is being mercilessly targeted on both edges and has dropped two crucial opportunities as wicketkeeper. It probably does not help when your opposite number, Alex Carey, has just delivered a virtuoso display.

Based on the coach's words in the aftermath, England appear set to keep the faith with Smith in Adelaide. The hope – as is the case – is that a switch to a more familiar match environment triggers his top form, with Perth's bouncy pitch and the unfamiliar floodlit Test now out of the way.

The alternative is to implement the plan discovered during the series win in New Zealand 12 months ago by moving the batsman down to his more natural home as a busy No. 5 or 6, handing him the gloves, and selecting a new No 3. A young contender made some runs for the Lions over the weekend, or maybe Will Jacks could perform a comparable function to the former spinner in 2023.

In the end, none of this is perfect, with Australia's better fundamentals having destroyed expectations and pushed the team's entire approach into the spotlight.