Ashes defeat heralds end of England's Bazball era

ADELAIDE, Dec 21 : ‌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