Two days into an Ashes series really is too early for an existential crisis. But here we are anyway after Bazball was brutally exposed by an Australia team who after being shaken by England’s five-pronged bowling attack on day one stirred into action to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.
Ben Stokes admitted in his post-match press conference that he was “shell-shocked”, but insisted that his players would not take the “baggage” of this embarrassing capitulation into the second Test in Brisbane that starts on 4 December.
Good luck with that.
Defeat here in Perth was always an option, even after Australia captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were ruled out of this opening Test. Shorn of two of their champion pace triumvirate, this was a golden opportunity for Stokes’ team to make the early running in this series. And they did, despite being bowled out for 172 in their first innings after Mitchell Starc, the last of the first-choice quicks, tried to shape this game on his own.
A 40-run lead felt like a significant step towards a first Ashes Test win Down Under in 15 years. But a cataclysmic collapse of nine for 99 during the second afternoon in Perth gift-wrapped this match for Australia.
The perceived wisdom on Ashes tours is that you cannot afford to lose the first Test. England have only ever won here after doing so on three occasions, in 1954-55, 1911-12 and 1882-83.
Losing a tight opening Test you could have possibly won needn’t necessarily torpedo your series – witness the 2023 home Ashes, when England lost the opener by two wickets at Edgbaston and came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2. They would have won, too, were it not for the rain-ruined fourth Test in Manchester they dominated.
Australia made England look amateurish (Photo: Getty)But losing a Test like this? It must be soul-destroying. From being in a position of dominance to losing the game in less than five hours. The psychological scars from that will run deep.
The last time England threw away a Test in Australia so wantonly, in Adelaide in 2006, they were whitewashed 5-0.
The hope is that Bazball’s mindset is so positive that this group of players won’t be sucked into the vortex of negativity that has overwhelmed so many England teams here in the past.
Bazball is a state of mind and the success it’s had – 25 wins and 15 defeats from 42 Tests – has engendered much goodwill from fans, journalists and former players.
But after all the hype and the build-up before this series, capitulating as badly as this is a problem.
You never know with this team. Maybe they’ll blow Australia away in the pink-ball Test in Brisbane. But they need something inspirational sooner rather than later otherwise they look set to descend into the doom loop of Aussie Ashes pain that so many of their predecessors have been propelled into.
It’s a pattern that is painfully familiar to England fans, who have endured 4-0 (2021-22), 4-0 (2017-18) and 5-0 (2013-14) defeats on the three tours since they last won in Australia in 2010-11.
The die already seems cast. It’s up to England to prove everybody wrong. Maybe their unshakable self-belief will see them brush off this humiliation and rock up in Brisbane ready to cause chaos.
But Ashes history, the most recent at least, tells you they are cruising for a 5-0 bruising.
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What’s on the line here is quite significant. If England do somehow take the series deep then jobs will be saved. Taking this series to Melbourne still live is the bare minimum. But they’ll have to win one of the next two Tests to do that.
Fail and then the repercussions will be savage. Coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key will be on the hook. Stokes, who has signed up until the end of the 2027 Ashes, will be safe whatever happens.
But the purge if this Ashes series goes south could be brutal.
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