Even if England have spent the majority of time since their Ashes triumph in a revelry-induced stupor there is little evidence Australia's batsmen will make them regret it at the Oval later this week. 
Within half an hour of the Australians' tour match away to Northamptonshire being called off on Sunday afternoon, when the visitors scrounged 9-312 dec in response to 396, those who had not already decamped - such as retirement-bound duo Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers - hurried onto the team bus to London, where the full squad convened for the first time since Nottingham a week earlier. One or two failures could be excused in a match where the result was inconsequential, but when it comes to a team demolished in three of their four Tests in England even those practice matches are consequential. There ought to have been evidence past mistakes have been noted and changes made accordingly. But what changes were there? Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh fell to nicks to the slips cordon well short of decent scores, David Warner was of little benefit in the first innings, Shane Watson was trapped leg-before and the dramatic form drop of incoming captain Steve Smith continued. It was not an Ashes Test in Northampton, but it was a 2015 Ashes-like performance, with Australia needing a ninth-wicket partnership of 98 between top-scorer Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon to get them most of the way to avoiding the follow-on target.
The Australians started the final day of the three-day match (which became a two-day match due to Friday's complete wash-out) with how they ended the preceding day: losing a newly elevated leader cheaply. Incoming vice-captain Warner edged to slip for 6 to end day one. Two overs into the final day captain Smith fell to the same bowler, Maurice Chambers, edging behind for a duck.