Anyone following this Ashes series, let alone writing about it, has wondered at which moment they can declare the death of Bazball. Maybe this is the joyless urge to destroy other people’s fun, maybe it’s righteous disapproval of some irritating aspects. All along, Bazball may have been a neighbourhood house party: great at your place, annoying next door.
Anyone waiting to time their solemn announcement with the imminent series loss is out of date. Given its fuel is confidence, England’s high-octane approach probably died during their adrenal collapse in Perth, when dazed players looked around and wondered why their mouths tasted like lightning. If the patient sat up and coughed in Brisbane, it promptly collapsed back on its pillows. So Travis Head, Usman Khawaja and Alex Carey were not killing off Bazball on the third afternoon of the Adelaide Test: like the Simpsons’ Krusty Burglar, it was already dead. More so, theirs was the meticulous assembly of the cremation pyre, due to be lit sometime on day four.
