Bazball has lost the element of surprise - far from improving, England's progress under Brendon McCullum has stalled, writes LAWRENCE BOOTH

After the short drive back from Perth Stadium to the Crown Hotel, the long night of the soul.

Having undergone Saturday's transformation from likely winners at lunch to stunned losers by stumps, England had plenty to ponder – including, perhaps, the question of whether head coach Brendon McCullum can inspire their first come-from-behind series win in Australia for 71 years.

That is the size of the task after losing the first Test of an away Ashes for the eighth time out of 10, a meltdown that has heaped fresh scorn on the Bazball project only two days into a seven-week series.

Above all, the manner of England's surrender on the second day in Perth has reignited doubts about their ability to think on their feet. And those doubts were not assuaged by McCullum's response in the Test's immediate aftermath.

'We do lose a few games, but we know how to win games as well,' he said. 'There's no point trying to play for safety per se. We've just got to keep backing our approach, be strong and keep believing in what we're doing.'

Does he have a method to fall back on when times are hard? 

'We'll find out, I suppose. But I'm pretty confident of the way we go about things. The last few years, we've built a set-up which is connected, it's tight, and we play a style of cricket that we believe gives us our best chance. If we go away from that, then we're in trouble.'

Four matches still lie ahead, and McCullum has already presided over one Ashes comeback – from 2–0 down to 2–2 in 2023, when they might have won 3–2 but for the Manchester weather.

But that was in familiar conditions at home. This is Australia, where the pitches are faster, the boundaries bigger and the scrutiny more sadistic. It may well be the last place on earth you want to squander a golden opportunity to win the first Test when two of your opponents' best three fast bowlers are missing.

McCullum, of course, is contractually obliged, not to say genetically predisposed, to look for the positives. While accepting that 'sometimes we get beaten and it looks pretty ugly', he also insisted that the Bazball wisdom of putting pressure on opponents and never taking a backwards step 'allows us to still believe in our abilities'.

The concern, though, is that England's one-size-fits-all dogma may be catching up with them. Because when attack becomes the norm, it loses the element of surprise. Opponents know what to expect, which is why Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc were able to hang the ball outside off stump, knowing the batsmen would go fishing.

The dismissals within six balls of Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Joe Root caused England's demise as much as the bowlers' lack of a Plan B when Travis Head began taking them apart – to say nothing of their collective loss of pace after generating such electricity 24 hours earlier.

Yet for both McCullum and Ben Stokes, the takeaway from Head's blitz was that it proved the virtue of going hard.

'There were two methods to get the ball soft,' said McCullum. 'One was to try to outlast, the more old-fashioned way. The other is to try to hit the ball as hard as you can and get it soft. That is what Travis identified as well, and he shook us off our lengths.'

Is that really how England should improve after losing 20 wickets in less than 67 overs? McCullum answered with a smile, though it was unclear whether he was joking: 'Maybe just back away and slay it over point, or slog it to cow [corner]. I'm not saying they didn't go hard enough, but Head had total conviction in his method. That's been what we've said: choose a method and have conviction in it.'

Australians have needed little excuse to disparage Bazball. Some media outlets even use the term interchangeably with 'England'. But they are not alone in wondering if the apparent unwillingness to adapt is now playing into opposition hands.

The evolution of Stokes's team feels like a case of two steps forward, one step back. After winning 10 of their first 11 Tests from June 2022, they lost by one run against New Zealand at Wellington after enforcing the follow-on – a result that was laughed off at the time, but hinted at carelessness to come.

Then came the 2–2 Ashes draw, followed by a sensational win over India at Hyderabad. But in 23 Tests since, England have won 11 and lost 11. And while they have winning records against seven teams, their overall numbers against Australia and India – the teams against whom they should be measured – are six wins from 17, with nine defeats.

Far from improving, they have stalled. And their next assignment is with the pink ball at the Gabba. Australia's record in day/night Tests is an ominous 13 wins from 14, including three out of three against England. Pat Cummins, meanwhile, could return to strengthen the home attack, at a venue where England have won only twice since the Second World War.

Previously, all this would have made next weekend's two-day floodlit game against a Prime Minister's XI in Canberra the perfect chance for a batting line-up low on confidence to get their eye in against the pink Kookaburra.

But that match is likely to involve the England Lions and a handful of fringe members from the Test squad, with McCullum keen to keep the first team together in Brisbane.  'We've got to work out whether that extra cricket is the key, or it's making sure that camaraderie is tight and morale doesn't drop, because that's a big mantra of me and Stokesy throughout this tenure,' he said.

More important, once the second Test gets under way on December 4, will be seizing on any sign of Australian weakness. 'We're going to have to find that knockout punch when we need it,' said McCullum. Quite where that punch will come from is a conundrum that may define his reign.