Travis Head, Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood shine in Bazball coach Brendon McCullum’s Twenty20 debut

In September, temperatures in Southampton dropped to almost eight degrees and Australia managed to keep the England white-ball team cold in their first match since the appointment of Brendon “Bazball” McCullum as all-format coach.

The Australians defeated England in each of their two most recent World Cup meetings – in India last year and in the Caribbean in June – a set of results that contributed to the sacking of Matthew Mott, who was replaced by McCullum.

Having undergone acclimatisation during a three-match trip to Scotland, the visitors looked better prepared for the task than an England team who were left without Test players due to the increasingly busy schedule of international cricket. The red-ball series against Sri Lanka ended a few days ago.

When Mitchell Marsh’s team held the door open for England by melting away from the batting crease after a slugging start from Travis Head (59 off 23 balls) and Matt Short (41 off 26), a target of 180 proved more than enough for Adam Zampa (2-20) and the returning Josh Hazlewood (2-32) to defend. England were bowled out for 151 in the final over and lost by 28 runs.

“We’ve had a consistent theme at the top, and whoever has come in has been able to play that,” Head said. “I’ve worked extremely hard over a period of time to be able to play freely. I took my chance a few years ago, and the freedom that (coach Andrew McDonald and Test captain Pat Cummins) gave me has helped as well.”

After a few poor fielding performances in the West Indies, the Australians were much sharper this time around, with Tim David and Cameron Green both making great catches in the outfield to decide the match.

Zampa in particular proved almost impossible to catch, letting his leg breaks and googlies slide towards stumps and pads and conceding just a single boundary in four overs, while picking the wickets of debutant Jacob Bethell and “finisher” Jamie Overton.

Only a stand of 56 in five overs between Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran threatened to pull England back after they had fallen to 4-52 in the chase, but that revival was dashed when Sean Abbott (3-28) and Hazlewood struck within four balls.