Josh Kempton: Bazball’s wild ride looks set to reach the end of the line with another Australian smashing

“Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride”. That was the catchphrase of England’s managing director of men’s cricket Rob Key to the side’s supporters after he sprung a huge surprise by hand-picking Brendon McCullum as their new Test coach in 2022. The move came shortly after the appointment of a new captain in Ben Stokes, who replaced Joe Root on the back of a miserable 4-0 defeat in the 2021-22 Ashes. With a hyper-aggressive style built around “running towards the danger” and quickly christened as Bazball in McCullum’s honour, the pair did turn around a team which had won only one of 17 Tests prior to their appointments into one which exhilarated fans and even won games, including a few in historic fashion. But the final frontier of an away Ashes series was always going to be the ultimate acid test for their unprecedented approach — and it is one they have failed miserably. The tourists were smashed in Perth, belted in Brisbane and are now all but certain to suffer another heavy defeat in Adelaide which would see Australia retain the urn inside only 11 match-days. England were never at all likely to pull off a record-breaking fourth-innings chase of 435 to keep themselves in the series, just as they stood a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming just the second side ever to recover from a 2-0 deficit to win an Ashes series. That reality was left in no doubt by a group of batters who have consistently had their worst instincts indulged, rather than reined in, and are now being made to pay the price. An aversion to leaving Ben Duckett was feted for in the new era’s early days again proved his undoing and the side’s backed-to-the-hilt No.3 Ollie Pope produced another skittish display, but day four’s worst offender was undoubtedly Harry Brook. The one-time No.1-ranked Test batter in the world’s ridiculous attempt at a reverse sweep off Nathan Lyon which saw his stumps rattled may be pointed to in the years to come as the moment Bazball died. The sad state of the series is worsened by the fact England have not confronted an Australia side firing on all cylinders. Captain Pat Cummins and Steve Smith have both missed games so far in this series and they essentially played a man down in Perth due to Khawaja’s battle with a back injury. Unless Jamie Smith and Will Jacks can pull off an unprecedented miracle, England will suffer a series defeat which will be as bad — if not worse — than the three which preceded it, despite all the pre-series talk about how things would be different with the new approach. Bazball has certainly given England’s supporters quite the ride. But it is surely now one which is at an end.