Stewing about their most stinging loss and preparing to face Australia’s pink ball king at the Gabba, England face a massive task to get their Ashes campaign back on track in Brisbane.

That is the verdict of former English bowler and Fox Cricket analyst Isa Guha, but she does believe the tourists have reason for some optimism despite the disastrous loss within two days in Perth.

While England opted against giving their struggling senior players an outing in Canberra against the Prime Minister’s XI, Guha said it was critical the side learned lessons from their eight wicket loss at Perth Stadium last weekend.

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“There’s no doubt that they will have to put themselves into a positive frame of mind. And I think part of the frustration for, not just them, but everyone watching, was the fact that they were in such a good position,” she told Fox Cricket podcast The Follow On.

“It was a real opportunity and they just didn’t close it out. So absolutely, they will take those positives, and the way England bowled (in the first innings) is some of the best fast bowling I’ve seen on Australian pitches from a touring side in a very long time as a unit.

“You know, we had Jasprit Bumrah here last year, and he is a one-man band, but the fact that everyone looked like they were bowling with consistency, with aggression, with pace, I think that was probably the most exciting thing from the Test match. And so (it is about) how do they really try to channel that focus to make sure they’re getting that more often than not for the remaining part of this series.”

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Part of the solution, Guha said, is to be more patient with the bat and to try to adjust to the situation of the game rather than opting for the all-out “Bazball” approach which as attracted heavy criticism since the loss in Perth.

“For the England boys, especially when they came into this series with so much hope and there was so much anticipation about how they would play at the start of the tour, knowing that previous successful teams, they’ve won the first Test, or they’ve come away with a draw, (it has to sting),” she said.

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“We know that’s never going to happen with this series, but the fact that they were in such a good position and suddenly lost the game in two sessions, and the manner that they lost, they will definitely be feeling like they’ve been in a tumble dryer.

“It’s all just coming at you, and before you know it, it’s just hit you. So I don’t know whether it’s a good thing that they have 12 days between Test matches, because you often just end up stewing on it.”

She pointed to the manner with which Australia rebounded in Adelaide last year when, after a heavy loss to India in Perth, they were dominant in the pink ball Test and used that as a springboard to clinch the series.

“It was a bit like Australia last year, when they were stunned by India, and you know that the papers were getting stuck into the Australian team, (that they were) not tough enough, what have you,” she said.

“But then they came into that next Test and that was the sign of a brilliant team, that they were able to bounce back really well. England have to do that. There’s no other option. They don’t currently hold the Ashes, so they have to find a way of of parking that loss almost – I don’t want to say forgetting it all together, because there are so many lessons and learnings from that Test match – but they do need to kind of think clearly about how they’re going to try this win this next one.”

That, the eight Test representative for England, said, will be far from easy given Australia’s strong record in day-night Tests at home.

“Especially with Australia, they have an unbelievable pink ball record (and they have) played so many of them, and that in itself is a thing tactically,” she said.

“England can’t just assume that they will go into this Brisbane Test imagining that the Test is going to go a certain way, and the pitch is going to play a certain way, because the pink ball just brings in so many different variables, and it becomes a session by session situation.

“And I actually don’t think England did that enough in the last Test. When the heavy roller wears off, we know that it’s going to do a little bit more. England, if they’d have just hung in there that afternoon session, they could have reaped the rewards in the evening session, a bit like Travis Head. So I think it’s one of those situations where they’ve just got to be clearer on how they’re looking to throttle up and throttle down, rather than trying to be all out attack.”

Guha said that among the areas of concern for the English was that they allowed an Australian attack without Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood to get through the first Test without being overextended.

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As a case in point, she said veteran Mitch Starc was not required to bowl extended overs when taking 10 wickets for the Test, while Brendan Doggett was used as the bowler who stuck the ball in short to east the load on his elder teammates.

This could be important given Starc will be vying to finish the series as strongly as he has started it, while Scott Boland could be required to produce a heavier workload than usual should Cummins or Hazlewood be absent for an extended period.

“I think for touring teams, you’ve always got to think about what does the opposition least want to do, and that they don’t want to resort to the short ball so early on in a series for a sustained effort, because they want to make sure they last for the four or five Tests,” she said.

“I also think the next Test probably plays into Australia’s hands again, because of the different stages of a pink ball, day-night Test, in the sense that when you’re bowling at those times, you want to be bowling a little bit fuller. And Mitch Starc is the best at that.

“You know, he averages 17 and he’s taken 81 wickets in however many pink ball Tests he’s played. He is the king of the pink ball. And the fact that he’s been able to get into some nice rhythm at Perth means that he’s going to be the key element for Australia when it comes to the bowling department.

“So that’s what I’d love for England to be thinking about more, rather than what’s just happened? How can we put pressure back on the Australian team? And it isn’t always full-on attack with the bat.

“Sometimes it does mean ‘let’s bat for two sessions here. Let’s get through to the next day so we’re in a position to really make the most of the day conditions.’ And I really hope that that’s what they’re thinking about.”