Ballance most vulnerable after England blown away

Well, that didn't last long. After basking in the glory of a fine performance at Cardiff for all of four days, 'new England' produced the sort of performance - or lack of it - to bring back memories of the bad old days and bad 'old England.' Perhaps it was not a corner that England turned. Perhaps it was a roundabout. There was no invite to the Australian team to join them for a drink after this match.

You have to go back to 1976 since England were beaten by such a crushing margin, in terms of runs, anyway and overall there have only been three heavier defeats. On that occasion, too, it was fast bowling that proved their undoing with Michael Holding and Andy Roberts combining to claim 16 wickets between them. It will be of little comfort to England to reflect that they subsequently went two-and-a-half decades before they beat the same opposition in a Test series.

There was a time when, defeated in such a manner, the selectors would swing the axe. By the end of the 1989 Ashes, for example, almost every county player with a pulse and bladder control had played a game.

It seems unlikely that the current selection panel will react in similar fashion. Continuity of selection has been a theme of recent England sides and there has been an acceptance for some time that this developing side would require patience. There were bound to be days like this.

There is a modicum of mitigation for this thrashing. By losing the toss, England were sentenced to bowling on the pitch at its flattest and, certainly in the final innings, batting on it when its bounce had become variable. If England asked for such a surface, they deserve no better. If they did not - and that is what they claim most vociferously - the MCC should reflect on the surfaces they regularly provide on this ground and the service they are providing English cricket. This really was not very good.

"We want to play on English wickets," Alastair Cook said afterwards. "And that wasn't too English." If England are going to challenge in this series, they need to be providing their own bowlers some encouragement - particularly seam encouragement - and backing their own batsmen to deal with the conditions - what might be termed typical English conditions - better. It would not be easy, but it would give them a chance.

But England would be deluding themselves if they hid behind the pitch or the toss as the only reason for this defeat. They would be deluding themselves if they did not accept that they had a problem with their top order, accept that their bowling attack was comprehensively outperformed here and admit that their excellent catching in Cardiff was the aberration. With bat, ball and in the field, Australia were better.

England's most pressing problem is that, even on these slow pitches, their top-order scores have been inadequate. In the four innings to date, they have been reduced to 43 for 3, 73 for 3, 30 for 4 and 64 for 7. And, in nine of their most recent 14 innings, they have lost their third-wicket with the score on 52 or fewer. It has happened "too often," Cook said. "It's just not good enough."

Such figures tell of a recurrent problem. They tell of a problem with the opening partner to Cook and the recent contributions of both Ian Bell and Gary Ballance. While Joe Root's excellence has masked the problem quite often, it cannot do so indefinitely. Bell, Ballance and Adam Lyth all face an anxious wait ahead of the announcement of the squad for the third Investec Test on Tuesday. None can have much cause for complaint if they are dropped.

Lyth's dismissal here was revealing. Caught behind playing a ball - a good ball, certainly - that he could have left on length, it was the seventh time in his eight innings he has been caught in the cordon. The other dismissal was a run-out. While he scored a century three Tests ago, he has reached 40 only once in eight innings and looks to have a major issue playing at balls just outside off stump. For an opener, that could be a terminal problem.

Ballance, too, is struggling. While his dismissal here, a victim of the variable bounce that saw Root bowled by one that kept low and Ballance receive one that lifted sharply, was somewhat unfortunate, it is happening too often to be dismissed so charitably. Only once in his last 10 Test innings has he reached 30 and, on five of those occasions, he had been bowled. Talk around the England camp suggests he is the most precariously placed of the three in-danger batsmen.

And then there is Bell. Nobody doubts Bell's inherent class or can seriously question his long-term record. But he has reached 30 only once in his last 12 Test innings and, in that time, has been out in some oddly soft ways. His dismissal here, caught at short-leg as he prodded forward to an off-break, was infuriatingly facile for a man of such experience. England need more from him if they are to win the Ashes. He needs to provide more if his international career is not to end within weeks.

It seems most unlikely that England would drop all three. Not only would such a move suggest panic but there are not so many top order batsmen pressing for inclusion from county cricket.

In the middle-order, Jonny Bairstow is in terrific form. He has made centuries in his last three first-class games and won the Man-of-the-Match award when recalled to the England one-day side against NewZealand. It is entirely possible he could be recalled and Joe Root - who has the highest average of anyone but Cook who has previously filled the opening role that has proved such a problem since Andrew Strauss' retirement - promoted up the order to make room for him.

Alex Hales, Mark Stoneman and, perhaps, James Taylor might also come up in the selectors' conversations. England have a Mitchell of their own, too, though it seems that Worcestershire's Daryl Mitchell - averaging 47.35 in Division One this season - is not in the reckoning at this stage.

The optimistic might even point out that Bairstow's recent century came against a side containing two left-arm seamers. It might be pointed out, however, that Jack Shantry and Ross Whiteley - Worcestershire's bowlers - may be left-arm and may be mammals, but there the similarities with Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson end.

"You don't face that kind of pace in county cricket," Cook said. "You may get one quick bowler. You won't get three."

Whoever comes into the side is going to find there is quite a step up to this level.

Another man who could make a difference - Nick Compton - spent the weekend at the beach. Compton's Test career was ended (for now, at least) after he went six innings in succession without reaching 20. His Test average - 31.93 - does not make his case for a recall especially persuasively, but he remains as hard to dismiss as anyone in county cricket and has a defensive technique that would appear well-suited to negating pace bowling. He really should come into the equation.

That he probably will not is largely due to a misunderstanding. Having taken a blow in the 2013 Headingley Test against New Zealand, Compton was sent for a scan and, while chatting to a doctor, was informed that he probably had a cracked rib. When the scans were analysed, however, he was shown to have suffered nothing more than deep bruising and it was alleged by the team management that he had shirked his fielding duties as he did not want to put himself in the firing line. Compton was offended, words were exchanged and he has never been selected since. It is two years since the selectors even spoke to him about a possible recall.

It would be a shame if such a trifle issue were to have any bearing on selection. While his record this season is unexceptional - he has averaged 40.47 in the Championship with one century and five other half-centuries - it is hard to think of a man in the county game who has a better package of skills for this particular challenge.

Such a recall might be seen as a climb down by England. They have, after all, talked a great deal about aggression and expressing skills in recent times. They have talked about banishing words such as "fight" and battle." And Compton, for all of his pleasant drives and strong cuts, is basically a battler. He might even make Cook look like a dasher.

It should not be an issue, though. Both the Tests in this series to date have finished inside four days. Time is the least of England's worries. Seeing off the new ball seems rather more pressing a problem. As Cook showed, old fashioned technique, old fashioned temperament and old fashioned running your bat into the crease is just as important as flair and flamboyance.