Ashes defeat heralds end of England's Bazball era

ADELAIDE: It was a wild ride while it lasted but the ‘Bazball’ revolution that enlivened English cricket for three years collapsed in 11 days on Australian soil in an Ashes defeat as harrowing as any in the modern era.

Bazball’s champions, coach Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, may argue otherwise and claim England’s death-or-glory style can be retooled and rise again.

In reality, it is unlikely to survive the bitter post-mortem that looms at the end of a series that had promised so much and has, to date, yielded so little.

Losing the urn in three tests is hardly rare for touring England squads, with the previous three series in Australia all going the same way.

But this failure will feel particularly grievous for fans on both sides who held expectations of a genuine contest.

Pre-series, England supporters were buoyed by the undeniable talent in the squad and lapped up players’ pledges that, this time, things would be different.

They were asked to believe that England had it all in hand, that a solitary warm-up hit against the England Lions in the lead-up to the series-opener in Perth was all that was needed to be battle-ready for their bid to wrest back the urn from the world’s top-ranked test nation.

Former England players who questioned the light preparations were labelled “has-beens” by Stokes, who later apologised for using the term while dismissing their concerns.

Now 3-0 down in the Ashes after Sunday’s 82-run loss at Adelaide Oval, England’s casual build-up, lack of match practice between the tests and long break in the beach resort of Noosa Heads will seem like hubris to some supporters.

‘RUN TOWARD THE DANGER’

McCullum often described England’s philosophy as “run toward the danger” but refused to countenance any criticism after each setback in Perth and Brisbane.

For McCullum, England’s planning was beyond reproach — that is until the moment the urn was gone on Sunday when he finally conceded that mistakes had been made.

McCullum said, correctly, that England had been beaten with bat, ball and in the field.

What was left unsaid was that they had squandered possibly their best chance to take down Australia, an ageing side robbed of their captain and pace ace Pat Cummins for two tests, Josh Hazlewood for the series and Steve Smith in Adelaide.

Having once held ambitions of becoming the first touring team to win the Ashes in Australia since 2010-11, England are now reduced to the much humbler aim of winning a first test match in the country in 15 years.

The last two days at Adelaide Oval showed Australia were vulnerable and that England could be competitive against a world-class attack if enough players executed their skills and were flexible to deal with changing match situations.

Opener Zak Crawley played his finest innings in Australia when he patiently saw off the new ball to score 85 in the fourth innings.

Will Jacks soaked up 137 balls for his 47 runs before falling to a good ball from left-arm maestro Mitchell Starc.

However, other players, like Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, who was bowled by spinner Nathan Lyon trying to reverse-sweep, have appeared incapable of adapting to Australian conditions and learning on the run.

While Bazball may have been laid to rest in Adelaide, its ghost may linger as players struggle to shake the freewheeling spirit that, for better or worse, has defined English cricket for the last three years.