England not mentally ready for the

First Test humiliation could be just the wake-up call Joe Root’s team need to win back the urn

Labelling a ground “The Fortress” is asking for trouble. “The Gabbatoir,” it was not. Then again, Edgbaston was not to know Jimmy Anderson would break down, Steve Smith would be imperious and a World Cup

win would dampen England’s energy.

The script said they would roll from the Lord’s super over straight over Australia in the Ashes, as if the first would provide petrol for the second. A two-stage summer conquest was on the cards. But nobody could have looked at Jos Buttler batting in this first Test and thought England’s white-ball heroes were still on a high. Buttler, the buccaneer, simply planted his feet and fell all over a Pat Cummins delivery that bowled him.

Nor could any sensible observer feel that Jonny Bairstow came here cocked and ready for a five-test marathon. Or Moeen Ali either. Add to that Joe Root’s inability to convert a fifty into the kind of innings Smith assembled twice on this ground and you start to build a picture of England falling into this series rather than marching in.

First time round, Rory Burns scored his maiden Test century and Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes were characteristically stubborn but from the moment Anderson pulled up lame and Smith took charge of a side who were 122 for eight on Thursday, the rhetoric fell apart.

To end it, out came Anderson like El Cid strapped to his horse to face Nathan Lyon, who was in his element on a fifth-day pitch against fatalistic opponents. Lyon’s 15th five-fer included his “bunny”, Moeen, who has tumbled into a vortex of low confidence and needs help, not vituperation.

Woakes, who has something of the school prefect about him, set a good example to Jason Roy, who ran down the pitch to paste Lyon in the 22nd over when England needed to bat all day and paid for it with his wicket.

All in all, a maudlin Monday, when the taunts of England’s supporters were rendered feeble. One came over to say, “Steve Smith should have been banned for life”. A bit late now for a legal challenge to Smith’s 12-month suspension. All the fun English cricket has had with Australia’s fall from grace has ended, unless Root’s gang can recalibrate after a Test for which they were not mentally ready.

Recriminations are pointless, except perhaps in the case of Roy, for whom the modern English cricketer’s excuse was written: “This is the way I play.” In this context, with a day to grind out a draw, nobody can excuse such a shot by saying they were trying to “get after” the spinner. Not at 60 for one.

Across the picture, though, England’s denuded bowling attack was a factor in Australia’s victory. Jofra Archer was absent, Mark Wood is injured, Anderson lasted four overs and Moeen’s confidence is shot. Smith feasted on these inadequacies for his 286 runs and needs to be tested more at Lord’s and beyond, particularly by Archer’s bounce and pace.

The most unforgiving England fans will lambast this side for being flat, for ceding so much ground at a venue where Australia had not beaten the home country for 18 years (hence the “fortress” tag), for collapsing on the fifth day to a 251-run defeat. But the traps for winning teams can be even bigger than for losing ones and several of Root’s team fell straight into one here.

The Cricket World Cup final was on 14 July, 17 days before the start of the Edgbaston Test. Say the celebrations lasted, well, several days, as they were entitled to. Not a long session on the booze, but trophy celebrations, official visits, commercial engagements.

All this after a draining six-week quest to win a home World Cup, and a final of outrageous drama, all the way down to the final ball. Buttler confessed in a recent interview that he might have struggled to play cricket again had England blown their chance. Then came a shoehorned Test against Ireland. The ones who played in that were doubtless struggling to adapt. The ones who missed it leapt straight from super over to Ashes Test.

To scoff, you need to have no idea about the cost of winning, of what trying so hard for so long can do to players physically and mentally.

Although Root dismissed it as an “excuse”, the concertina effect of World Cup win and first Ashes Test was visibly hard to deal with, especially for Buttler, Bairstow and Moeen. Stuart Broad, who was able to prepare himself specifically for the red-ball stint, was England’s best bowler with six wickets (five for 86 in Australia’s first innings).

The glow of fulfilment radiating over Lord’s three weeks ago was the light by which many scripted a renaissance for cricket. It was England’s chance to strike back at football with a stellar generation of players, hard-working and admired. But these big sweeps in history tend to be mythical. The next challenge is soon upon you: in this case, with a different team, in a different game, with an infirm, all-time-greatest, England bowler and a Don Bradman-esque batsman with a point to prove.

It came as no shock to see England buckling under the weight of this intensified expectation. With four Tests to go, to despair would be absurd.

Losing will alleviate the summer-of-joy hype and allow England to put that seminal World Cup day at Lord’s to bed.