Into the heart of Australia's collapses

Following On, Emma John's engaging account of growing up with a fairly ordinary England cricket team, includes the following passage from Phil Tufnell, describing the dressing room scene as Michael Atherton's team are shot out for 46 by Curtly Ambrose at Trinidad in 1994:

"Everyone's scrambling, it's the first time I've seen five England batsmen all padded up, their helmets on, chest pads on, all in line, like parachutists waiting to get out the f***ing aeroplane... 'C'mon, next one, go!' ... Chaos ... chaos ... chaos ..."

There was a time when Australia's cricketers were the chief architects of many similar England collapses, ending innings swiftly but also quite often ceding any chance of victory in matches where up to that point the honours were even at the very least. A couple of decades later, however, it is Australia who have become synonymous with batting slides of a ruinous nature.

Their emergence has coincided with a slide down the ICC rankings, meaning they will enter the Ashes series positioned fifth among Test nations, while their former pre-eminence in ODI cricket has been stripped away by series losses to New Zealand and India either side of a rapid elimination from the Champions Trophy.

So consistently have the Australians found ways to give up clumps of wickets that ESPNcricinfo has identified no fewer than 25 instances in Tests and 19 instances in ODIs of major collapses - defined as, at least, four wickets (apart from wickets seven to 10) going down for fewer than 20 runs each. These sequences have all taken place since the start of the 2015 Ashes series, which was Michael Clarke's last assignment in charge before he was replaced by Steven Smith.

As captain, Smith has consistently noted the damaging trend, most recently after the second ODI against India in Kolkata last week, but there has been little notable improvement. In Tests, there has been at least one major collapse in all but two series over the period - those against West Indies (at home) and New Zealand (away) in 2015-16. Things got particularly dire in the second half of 2016, as series against Sri Lanka (six innings out of six) and South Africa (four out of six) were beset by rushes of wickets.

If some improvement was discernible at home, against Pakistan, the patterns returned in Bangladesh and India, meaning two otherwise meritorious series efforts - particularly against India - were distorted by an inability to hold firm at times that would likely have turned a 1-1 draw and a 2-1 defeat into a pair of victories. During this period, a major characteristic of Australia's struggles has been evident in the middle order, beyond the bright batting lights of Smith and his deputy, David Warner.

Nos. 5, 6 and 7 have become decidedly problematic, starting largely with the eclipse of Adam Voges, following a record-setting start to his late-arriving Test career. Voges was initially followed in the order by Mitchell Marsh and Peter Nevill, who found themselves caught in a spiral that ultimately sucked both out of the Test team. Marsh, unsure of whether to hit out or settle in for a long innings, commonly did neither, while Nevill, an organised batsman but far from a late-order aggressor in the mould of Adam Gilchrist, Brad Haddin or even Ian Healy, could not change momentum running fast against him.

More recently the No. 5 berth has been occupied by Peter Handscomb, who is still trying to find ways to go on from promising starts more often. Behind him, in India and Bangladesh, was Glenn Maxwell, who, after an exemplary start in Ranchi, making the hundred his talent always suggested was possible with a little more self-control, has lapsed into his former inconsistencies. Behind them has come Matthew Wade, who ostensibly replaced Nevill by dint of the fact he had made a pair of excellent Test hundreds, in 2012-13, while keeping Haddin out of the Test XI.

Save for his voluble presence behind the stumps and improving glovework, Wade has been utterly unable to replicate those sorts of innings, seemingly caught in the kind of batting deterioration cycle that affects some wicketkeepers the longer their careers progress. Replacing him with Handscomb, not Victoria's first choice behind the stumps, was discussed in Bangladesh and has now happened in India, meaning the identity of the Ashes wicketkeeper is now shrouded in doubts.

Whoever it is, he will be entering a middle order where plenty of keen observers, both within the team and without, are questioning whether the cycle of collapses are a matter of circumstances, technique, or something more troubling - character. Back in Australia, where the national team coach Darren Lehmann is preparing for the Ashes while letting Haddin and David Saker deputise in India, the former opener and sometime Australian batting coach Justin Langer believes a string of collapses indicate that all is not well with the mindsets of Australia's batsmen.

"The thing about cricket is that it's such an individual game," Langer told ESPNcricinfo. "The best way to eradicate batting collapses is to make sure that every player's in good shape personally. We talk about momentum in games, but if every player - when they walk out to bat - feels good about their game, it doesn't matter what the score is, whether you've lost a few quick wickets or whether you're flying.

"When you walk out to bat you have to have a great mindset that you're ready to perform. When you bat in the top six especially you've got to be prepared to make a hundred every time you walk out to bat. To me it's about their mindset, their preparation and being ready to score a hundred for the team every time they go out to bat, and that's in all forms of the game.

"In Twenty20 or 50-over cricket, it's usually the top four who get the best opportunity, but certainly in Test or first-class cricket, the top six have to have the mindset of being prepared and ready to score a hundred."

Langer agrees there is, perhaps, evidence of T20 thinking in how often Australia's batting order has seemed less than eager to scrap when things are difficult, whether it be on a seaming surface in Hobart, an uneven strip in Dhaka or in the tumultuous surrounds of a packed ODI crowd at Eden Gardens. While a pressurised game, Langer argues that the shortest form does not afford players the best opportunity to spend long periods of time using the very skills they base their careers on - batting and bowling.

"There's a lot of discussion about Test cricket, whether it's dying, and first-class cricket with Twenty20 being the way of the future," he said. "The thing about being a cricketer is that while T20 is a real pressure game, you don't get to play much actual cricket. As a batsman you don't get to bat much and as a bowler you only get to bowl four overs.

"Whereas, in Test cricket, you're being tested and you get those opportunities to come in when momentum's going against you, and you get a chance to bat for a long period of time, a chance to bat in different conditions, the subcontinent, the Gabba, the WACA, you get a chance to be really tested. That's why I'll never turn my back on Test or first-class cricket. As time goes on, players are going to realise they love those games because they actually get a chance to do what they love doing: bat and bowl and be tested, for long periods."

For the moment, however, the question is very much open as to whether Australia's cricketers truly want to be out there in the crucible, making calm and strong decisions that recognise "big moments" and respond accordingly. For a long time it was a hallmark of an Australian cricketer to be driven to make a difference, not thinking "someone else will do it today" and seizing the chance.

Most worrying, in the months before a home Ashes series, is the fact that the pattern Smith's teams have developed mirror those of the side led by Ricky Ponting in the two years before the 2010-11 summer, which ended, of course, in misery for all those clad in the baggy green. Before that Ashes summer, Ponting, too, found himself in India, where he oversaw a Test series defeat marked by some admirable displays but also those familiar, crippling collapses.

"I don't think there are too many gaping holes in our team," Ponting said at the time. "We just have to take opportunities that come our way and not let big opportunities slip. There's been some good stuff there, but not when it mattered most."

A power of work remains to be done, both between the ears and between the wickets, if the Australians are to avoid what Emma John called the "look of Kurtzian horror" in Tufnell's eye.