Ashes to ashes, dust to...
An Ashes Test, the first in a series, is over in two days!
It’s shaping up as a long summer for England, and the way they are trying to play their Test cricket.
This much-talked-about trend of attack was well and truly exposed in Perth. It did offer England some chances, but Australia had the better resources to cope and win by eight wickets.
That says it all.
After getting into a potentially winning position in their second innings, England fell apart with no player equipped to throw down an anchor and provide some solidity.
The response was bash, bash, bash and eventually hope that a 200-run lead might be enough to challenge Australia.
It was never going to happen, whoever opened Australia’s second innings.
The style England is trying to play is selfish – selfish to the batters, to the team, and to the fans.
The millennials have taken over to the detriment of the game. Who would have thought three ODIs in New Zealand, where international cricket should never be played in October, would be sufficient for England to prepare?
They needed to be adjusting to Australian conditions.
But just like skill has gone out the window, so has common sense, regarding preparation.
Skill is not about blasting the ball fastest and farthest.
It is accepting that not everything will go your way and that, sometimes, for the good of the team, you have to choose a different tack.
It is about forcing your opponents to change their game and try something else to get you out.
That is the chess game that is Test cricket, it’s not the draughts, short-term, self-satisfying game, that England is guilty of playing.
Has Joe Root, potentially the highest run scorer in Test history, got the wherewithal, determination and skill to score at least one Test century in Australia to lend some credibility to whatever statistics he may achieve in the future?
He may have to break England’s mould to do it. How will the team management receive that?
There is no disadvantage in being prepared to slow the game down a bit in the quest to increase chances of winning. Defensive qualities are just as much a part of Test cricket as attacking abilities.
The real test for England, however, is whether its players have the skills to make this series competitive.
Or has a diet of Twenty20 belligerence and One-Day irrelevance meant no attention is paid to adjusting techniques to cope with changing pitch and bowling qualities?
Time will tell, but it will be interesting to see if anyone in the England structure can force the handbrake on, or if this is going to turn out to be the quickest five-day Test series in history.
And will anyone in this England set up care?