New heroes emerge with Australia's one hand firmly on the Ashes

Australia are no strangers to being 2-0 up in a home Ashes series. It has been that way on the last three occasions. When a particularly animated Steven Smith pulled Gus Atkinson for a mighty six at the end of a feisty few minutes, they were at the 2-0 mark again. But this one has been a little different.

Amid the celebrations for Smith's unbelievable catch to remove Will Jacks, which broke England's belated resistance on the fourth day, there was a reminder of some of what Australia were missing in this match. The drinks carriers had 871 Test wickets between them: the somewhat overqualified pair of Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon.

To that, you can add the 295 of Josh Hazlewood, who faces a race to feature at all in this series. Then there's the fact that an entirely new opening pair has been formed by accident due to the injury suffered by Usman Khawaja. Form debates for Khawaja aside, it required another divergence from Plan A.

From the moment Cummins was ruled out of the opening stages of the series, Australia have had to be adaptable. When Hazlewood went down as well (along with Sean Abbott), it really tested their pace-bowling depth. Then they turned up at the Gabba, thought long and hard for three days, and at the last moment, gave Lyon a tap on the shoulder that left him "absolutely filthy".

Midway through the fourth day, the man who replaced him, Michael Neser, was being cheered off his home ground by fans and team-mates. He had first opened the door the previous night with a brace of return catches, then ended their belated resistance to finish with 5 for 42.

"It was tight," Smith said of the selection call. "We could have gone a few different ways and it's certainly nothing against Nathan. He's a freak. We just thought, if we can get our sessions right in the way we play, and obviously the extra batting and the tail - the way they batted for 50 overs enabled us to do that. Those 35 overs we had last night really turned the game [with] those six wickets we took. It was [about] trying to line our sessions up as much as possible.

"I think Michael offers something different. We can bring the 'keeper up, we can bowl stump for stump, keep things tight and make you take risks when the ball's probably not quite as quick or a little bit skiddy. We were happy with that. It's nothing against Nathan, that's for sure. He's an unbelievable bowler and he's done it for so long."

Australia's top score in a total of 511 came from their No. 9, with Mitchell Starc making 77 after he'd carried the bowling attack on the first day. It's not to say Starc wouldn't have dominated the way he has if Australia's attack had been at full strength, but in the first two matches of this series, he has played one of the great leading roles when Smith needed it most.

"Super proud," Smith said. "I think everyone played their role throughout. Different roles, obviously Nes [Neser] up to the stumps, [Scott] Boland a little bit up to the stumps and changing things. Starcy did what he's done forever. Doggett, I thought, bowled some nice spells and obviously created something different with some short stuff as well. It was quite a nice little balance we had there.

"And I thought Greeny [Cameron Green] bowled really nicely today as well. He could have had Stokes out on a couple of occasions there; he was looking quite likely. I thought they all did their jobs together. It was pretty humid and hot out there. They kept coming back and did everything I asked of them. That's what this team's been doing for some time."

Australia's fielding also played a vital role throughout. Alongside one of the finest displays of wicketkeeping by Alex Carey and Smith's stunning grab, Josh Inglis produced a direct hit run out to remove Ben Stokes on the opening day and Marnus Labuschagne claimed a brilliant outfield catch to end England's first innings. There have been times of late where Australia's outfielding has not been the best; this game was exemplary.

They have won by vast margins of ten wickets and eight wickets against an England side billed as being their greatest challenge on these shores since 2010-11. Elsewhere on these pages, it will be dissected how poor England have been. But while Australia have been handed some gifts, they have also seized the moment.

"It was a huge win, obviously great to go 2-0 up," Smith said. "It's been a wonderful couple of weeks for the team. I think we've played some sensational cricket. We've identified moments in the game and made the most of them.

"We play live, we adapt on the go instead of getting back in the sheds and going, we should have done this, we should have done this. We identify what we need to do at that present moment and adapt. We've done that well for a long period of time."

There was no better example of that than the way the lower-order batting on the third day, with the stand between Starc and Scott Boland enabling Australia to have the ideal bowling conditions. England had a glimpse of what could have been when Atkinson and Jofra Archer briefly got the ball to zip through during the small chase under lights. But by then the game was long gone and, with it, Australia had one hand firmly on the Ashes again.