Even losing seems to involve doing so without the qualities that were supposed to make England win
It’s a cruel, cruel summer. By the close of play in Adelaide, on the kind of superheated afternoon when just going outside basically involves setting fire to your own hair, it was clear this was the day the music finally died for England’s Ashes tour; even if that music has long since faded, like the tinkle of a haunted pianola in an empty house.
The start of day two had presented a familiar challenge. Here was another occasion where it was necessary to bat properly. And yes, it is always this day. The bat properly day. Do it. Do the batting. The proper batting. By now this seems to raise some very basic existential questions.
What is properly? What is batting? And what is this England team, when even losing a Test match seems to involve doing so without the qualities that were supposed to make it win: no panache, no boldness, no energy. There are only two things wrong with this England team. They can’t Baz. And they can’t ball.
For a while in mid-afternoon Harry Brook and Ben Stokes conjured a slow-burn partnership in pursuit of Australia’s ever-retreating 371. Stokes was stoic, gripped by cramps in the heat, but still more or less immovable, batting as extreme endurance discipline. Brook was in his new absorb-the-pressure mode, which is clearly the right choice, but somehow it still felt like watching a thrash metal band reel off two hours of light dinner jazz.
