“If we’re brutally honest, we had a few guys on that tour that weren’t at the top of their games, and a few who weren’t 100 per cent wanting to be there. It’s not the environment you can go to unless guys are absolutely committed. You’ve got to throw a few punches. That’s the way to win Ashes cricket over there. We didn’t do that”

Ian Bell on England’s 5-0 defeat in Australia in 2013-14

If England are to fight their way back into this Ashes series, they are going to have to summon a resilience and character that was barely in evidence during the first two Tests, and which was clearly missing during the whitewash of 12 winters ago. That was a tour that ended the careers of several players and Andy Flower’s time as head coach, and still serves as a reminder of how far a fancied group of players can fall short of expectations.

Ben Stokes made plain in his post-match comments after Sunday’s defeat that there could be no place for weakness, and Brendon McCullum reinforced the message with his own blunt appraisal. “You come to this country and have a glass jaw, you have no chance. You have to be strong, tough, and get on with it.”

The challenge for Stokes and McCullum now is how to freshen things up. Who to keep faith with, who to pull out of the firing line?

A rejig is clearly in the offing with McCullum saying, “Over a five-Test series you’ll need a majority of your squad anyway, so that [team changes] wouldn’t be a reaction to it [two defeats],” before adding, in what seemed a warning to anyone who may be dropped: “You don’t get to feel sorry for yourself in this game.”

Bringing in players who have yet to feature can be tricky, especially on tours with so little cricket outside the Tests. Andrew Strauss’s 2010-11 side successfully introduced seamers Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan, but did so from a position of relative strength in a series in which they were never behind.

Ollie Pope is obviously under pressure for his place at No. 3 from Jacob Bethell, but there are other areas of concern. One is what England should do about their spin bowling. Spin hardly featured in the first two Tests on pitches suited to pace, but that will change in Adelaide, where spinners tend to have a big role. Nathan Lyon will certainly return for Australia.

England’s position is less clear-cut. A few months ago, Shoaib Bashir was their undisputed No. 1 spinner, though a work in progress. Then he broke a finger in the Lord’s Test, missed a lot of cricket and has looked woefully out of sorts since arriving here, first at Lilac Hill, then in this weekend’s Lions game against Australia A.

Meanwhile, Will Jacks — chosen as a utility player for the pink-ball Test at the Gabba — was one of the few England players to emerge in credit. Stokes did not call on his off spin as much as he might have done, but Jacks bowled tidily late in the Australian innings and claimed the only wicket to have fallen to spin in the series so far.

He also took a stunning catch to dismiss Steve Smith and batted almost three hours at No8 with Stokes on the final day after Stokes had called on his players to “show some fight”. He looked more capable than some who went in above him.

Before the Test, Stokes indicated that had the match been a conventional red-ball game, Bashir would have got the nod. “He knows if it was down to picking our best spinner, he’d have played,” he said. But will that be the case in Adelaide, given how Bashir went against Australia A and the composure and grit shown by Jacks?

McCullum certainly liked what he saw. “I’ve been really impressed with Will in this game,” he said. “We’ve seen he’s a tough character. He’s played a lot of high-pressure T20 cricket around the world and has been successful. He’s obviously a big part of the [England] white-ball side. He equipped himself really well [and] bowled well in the short opportunity he had.”

Picking Bashir would be a big gamble at a stage in the series in which England cannot afford any more mistakes. Things don’t stand still in life, and England may have to accept that in Bashi,r they have backed a horse that has failed to come in for them.

In the heat of the fiercest battles, Jacks may be the sounder option — he is five years older and has more than 340 professional matches to his name compared with Bashir’s 50. He would have played in the last Ashes series in England in 2023 had Moeen Ali not answered Stokes’s call to come out of retirement, and he has matured a lot in the past 18 months.

He is three inches shorter than Bashir at 6ft 1in, but has a similarly high release point, which is important for finger spinners on Australian pitches.

Another worry is Jamie Smith. He made a bad mistake dropping Travis Head at the Gabba and has managed only 130 runs in his past nine innings after previously averaging 58.64. The toll of keeping wicket in matches that went to five days against India, and in sapping heat here, appears to be telling on someone who does not keep regularly in championship cricket.

If Stokes and McCullum decide Smith needs to be pulled out, they could bring in Bethell at No3 and drop Pope down to No6 or No7 and give him the gloves — basically revisiting the arrangement in New Zealand last winter when Smith was on paternity leave.

McCullum offered a fairly robust defence of Smith, but then you would expect nothing else at this point, with nine days until the next Test. “Smudge had a tough game, didn’t he? [It was] probably highlighted by how good Alex Carey was behind the stumps [for Australia]. He’s a flair player. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the conditions in Adelaide with the boundary sizes and the pitch.” Adelaide’s square boundaries are short, which would suit Smith’s penchant for leg-side sixes.