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The England head coach despised the label Bazball from its inception, viewing it as overly simplistic and perhaps anticipating 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 turned into the subject of Australian jokes.

However McCullum has not helped himself either. After the gut-wrenching defeat at the Gabba, his insistence that, if anything, England were 'over-prepared' prior to the pink-ball match was akin to attempting to extinguish a rubbish fire with petrol. It could become his epitaph as national coach if results do not improve.

In a way, one must admire his commitment to the bit. While McCullum says he block out outside criticism, he must have been acutely aware of an England team increasingly characterised as freewheeling and lacking preparation.

The reality, as ever, is not so simple. England enjoy golf just as much during their necessary down time as their opponents and they practice equally hard. Prior to the Gabba Test, they trained for longer, logging five days to Australia's three, given their lack of exposure to the pink ball and the changes in lighting conditions.

The Debate of Preparation 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 conviction that less is more. It suggested a significant amount of mental energy was used up before they even stepped out in the cauldron of Australia's stronghold. And though net practice are a opportunity to refine skills, they can also become a comfort zone; zero consequence activity that simply maintains the reflexes sharp.

Schedules are congested such that warm-up matches against state sides were not possible (with uncertain value, when you consider England having played 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 Jacob Bethell's wasted summer.

Match Shortcomings and Philosophical Lack of Evolution

Match practice alone prepares cricketers for the many situations they encounter, and it is here where England have so far been found lacking. The issue is not just with the batting – as poor as some of the shot selection has been – but an attack that seems leaderless. None has shown the patience or discipline that the otherworldly Australian paceman and his support cast have displayed.

McCullum's free-spirit outlook was freeing during its first 12 months, an excellent, well diagnosed solution to eradicate the torpor that preceded it. The frustration now comes in how it has seemingly failed to move beyond that initial phase – an absence of an second phase to the initial philosophy that has seen form decline to 14 wins and 14 losses from their most recent matches.

Squad Focus and Team Dilemmas

One such player is Jamie Smith, a talent, no question, but one who is being mercilessly targeted on each side of the bat and has dropped two crucial opportunities with the gloves. The situation is not aided when your counterpart, Alex Carey, has just produced a virtuoso performance.

Going by McCullum's comments in the aftermath, England appear set to persist with Smith in Adelaide. The hope – as is the case – is that a switch to a more familiar Test setting triggers his best, with Perth's trampoline surface and the unfamiliar floodlit Test now out of the way.

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 active No. 5 or 6, giving him the gloves, and picking a fresh face at first drop. Bethell scored runs for the Lions recently, or perhaps 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 pre-series optimism and forced the broader philosophy into the harsh glare of scrutiny.