England's cricket debacle throws up some serious questions

The manner and margin of defeat still defy comprehension. Are South Africa really that good? Have England really become that bad? Has the rarefied air at the top of the rankings mountain really gone to their heads? What has happened to Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann? Why couldn't England's bowlers move the ball off the straight and narrow while South Africa's could? And so on and so on.

England's defeat at the Kia Oval last week by an innings and 12 runs certainly raised a raft of uncomfortable questions. "We are still scratching our heads as to why that ball didn't do anything," says Alastair Cook in response to one of them, while the rest of us still shake our skulls at most of them. It really was that horrible.

This celebrated team have been in holes before - think of the hammerings at Headingley against Australia in 2009, at Johannesburg against South Africa in 2010, at the Oval against Pakistan and Perth against Australia later that year, as well as the three-match series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates and at Galle against Sri Lanka this year - but none as deep as this surely.

That, bar the UAE series, they went on to win the Tests that followed all those calamities should be of some succour, but right now it does seem rather like clutching at some flimsy things called straws. Like blaming the pitch. One with pace and bounce, and spin later in the game, was ordered, but only the latter appeared. The surface was astonishingly dry given the monsoons that had preceded the match. And England, as they proved beyond doubt last winter, are poor in such subcontinental conditions.

But, unfathomably, they were even worse than last winter. No player can escape censure, not even Cook, who made a superb first-day century. Conditions were at their toughest, but he had the opportunity on day two to play the match-defining innings.

Andrew Strauss went to the fourth ball of the game, evoking memories of his first-ball dismissal the last time these sides met in that Johannesburg Test.

Jonathan Trott played nicely but in his last 24 Test innings he has made just one century - in Galle. He is chipping in, but the full potato is now required.

Kevin Pietersen's late-on-the-first-day flap at Jacques Kallis was as irritating as his pre-match attempts at horse-trading with the England management about his one-day future. Ian Bell left a ball from Kallis to be bowled. Ravi Bopara handed his critics rounds of ammunition.

Matt Prior had a good match until fatally losing patience on the final afternoon. Tim Bresnan is no longer a lucky charm, Broad was down on pace but, then, he has been for most of the summer, Swann was played with ridiculous ease, and James Anderson only claimed the wicket of the lbw-candidate Alviro Petersen.

Why, oh why? Cook denies there is any sense of cockiness: "We don't ever think we are the best team in the world," he says, " We don't talk about that as a side. The rankings show that we managed to get to the top of the tree.

"We have been through a lot of different situations as a side and we know how to deal with them. That breeds confidence, but we never walk around that dressing room thinking we have made it. Cricket is a funny game and we don't strut around like that. We are working as hard now as we were when we were No?5."

A personal opinion is that the postponement of the proposed Test Championship in 2013 might have robbed England of an intended focus. Staying at No?1 is a blurred ambition. I may be wrong, but a few bad days at the office seems too simplistic an explanation for this debacle.

Not that there should be wholesale changes for Headingley this week. That would have happened in the past, but not now. Broad needs another wake-up call like last year when he was bowling too short, but Steven Finn for Bresnan is the only likely change.

The one question answered last week was that concerning preparation. The talk of South Africa being "undercooked" was utter tosh. It usually is these days. I say that having said previously that England's preparation in Australia in the last Ashes was overhyped. Remember that they conceded a first-innings lead of 221 in the first Test at Brisbane.

South Africa were not as lacking in bite on day one as reported. They bowled well. They were ready. International teams practise with such intensity and purpose nowadays that the old cliche of "time in the middle" does not always hold true.

As Strauss told me recently about rest and rotation: "People's first port of call is to look back at what happened in their day, but it's actually not relevant. The game changes and moves on."

I once thought Twenty20 should be played in a block so as to preserve players' techniques, but I've altered that opinion now. Today's players are so adaptable and skilful that there is no need for such protection.

And South Africa's are among the most adaptable and skilful. They are also hugely driven. Mark Boucher's injury has not weakened them; it has inspired them, as evidenced by Kallis' pointing to his eye upon reaching his Oval century.

Never underestimate Kallis. He is quiet, but when he speaks people, quite rightly, listen.

I was at South Africa's first training session of this tour at Taunton. Unsurprisingly it was indoors. It ended with a particularly brutal fitness session. Shuttles were run and run, with Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers leading, until most of the players collapsed with exhaustion. The session was over.

Suddenly a voice piped up from the side of the hall. "One more for the series boys!"

It was Kallis. He was going to do another set of shuttles. "Jake has called it. Anyone going to join him?" asked coach Gary Kirsten.

Anyone? They all did, to a man.

England are up against some team, in every sense.