Australia - in the 1936-37 Ashes down under - are the only team in Test history to come from 2-0 down to win a five-match series
England being two-nil down after two Tests of an Ashes series has few positives, other than a) increasing the likelihood of a stage musical about the series being written if a stirring comeback leads to a historic 3-2 victory; and b) familiarity.
This the eighth time in the past 10 Ashes tours of Australia that England have lost the first two Tests, and the 12th time in the past 20 Ashes contests in either hemisphere - a sequence that began in 1989 when England attempted to fight fire with selectorial mayhem, making four changes after each of the first four Tests, then treating themselves to six changes for the sixth and final match.
Since the Second World War, England lead the 'Losing the First Two Tests of an Ashes Series' competition by an impressive margin of 17 to 2, with Australia's only experience of what has become the default state of Ashesness for England coming in 2013 and 1978-79 (when almost all of Australia's first and second-choice players were playing World Series Cricket rather than the Ashes).
While the fading echo of the first day in Perth, the various acts of miraculous fortune-flipping in captain Ben Stokes' career, Joe Root having finally added his name to an Australian honours board, and the theoretical brilliance of England's batting line-up offer morsels of optimism if you squint hard enough, Ashes history offers little statistical succour.
