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The England head coach despised the label Bazball the moment it emerged, considering it overly simplistic and perhaps anticipating how it might be used as a weapon down the line. Right now, down 2-0 in an Test series in Australia that began with high hopes, it has become the butt of Australian jokes.

However McCullum has contributed to the problem either. After the gut-wrenching defeat at the Gabba, his insistence that, if there was an issue, England were 'over-prepared' prior to the pink-ball match was like attempting to extinguish a rubbish fire with gasoline. It could become his epitaph as England head coach if performances do not improve.

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 acutely aware of an England team often described as carefree and underprepared.

The reality, as ever, is more nuanced. England play as much golf during their necessary down time as their rivals and they train just as much. Prior to the Gabba Test, they did more, logging five days compared to Australia's three, given their lack of exposure to the pink Kookaburra ball and the different lighting conditions.

The Debate of Readiness and Training

The coach's point about being "excessively ready" was that those five extra days were his call – the moment he wavered in his belief that minimal preparation is best. It meant a Test match's worth of focus was expended before they even took the field in the cauldron of Australia's fortress. While nets are a chance to iron out skills, they can also become a safety blanket; zero consequence work that mainly keeps the reactions quick.

Schedules are congested such that pre-series state games were unavailable (with no guarantee, as shown by England playing three before the whitewash in 2013-14). More difficult to justify is the disregard of domestic red-ball cricket as a worthwhile exercise more broadly, evidenced by Jacob Bethell's wasted summer.

On-Field Deficiencies and Strategic Lack of Evolution

Only playing 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. It is not only with the batting – harrowing as some of the decision-making has been – but an attack that seems without a spearhead. None has shown the persistence or discipline that the exceptional Australian paceman and his teammates have displayed.

The coach's unconventional outlook was freeing during its first 12 months, an excellent, well diagnosed remedy to shake off the torpor that preceded it. The disappointment now comes in how it has apparently not evolved past that point – the lack of an upgrade to the initial philosophy that has seen results decline to an even record from their last 30 Tests.

Player Spotlight and Team Dilemmas

Among them is Jamie Smith, a gifted player, no question, but one who is being constantly tested on both edges and missed two crucial opportunities as wicketkeeper. The situation is not aided when your opposite number, the Australian keeper, has just produced a masterful performance.

Going by McCullum's words in the aftermath, England appear set to persist with Smith in Adelaide. The expectation – as is the case – is that a switch to a traditional Test setting unleashes his best, with Perth's bouncy pitch and the unusual floodlit Test now out of the way.

Another option is to enact the plan stumbled across during the series win in New Zealand last year by shifting the batsman down to his more natural home as a busy 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 similar role to Moeen Ali in 2023.

In the end, none of this is perfect, with Australia's superior basics having destroyed pre-series optimism and pushed the broader philosophy into the harsh glare of scrutiny.