KEY POINTS:
John Bracewell knows all about the potential power of a backlash.
He witnessed it first-hand within his own side a couple of years ago when they were trounced 3-0 in the tests by England, before rebounding spectacularly in the one-dayers to carry off the NatWest title.
With that in mind, the New Zealand coach isn't about to dismiss the chances of a battered England squad gaining a new lease of life when the Commonwealth Bank tri-series starts on Sunday week.
Australia, he knows, will be the supreme challenge, as evidenced by their perennial No 1 ranking and their complete dominance on the world ODI scene for the past decade.
On the other hand, what should he expect from an England side who've been starring in their own horror show for the past couple of months, and are about to be given one final chance to redeem themselves before heading home?
"They're a side we hope have taken a dreadful towelling and will be blown apart in terms of morale by the time we arrive," Bracewell said.
"But I doubt it somehow because they have some quality batting within their side and if [Andrew] Flintoff stands up they're a dangerous team."
He believed the England administration would now be moving heaven and earth to ensure their players put the Ashes nightmare behind them, and embraced the ODI series as a new and separate challenge.
The relief of being able to jettison the test disappointment had the potential to snowball into a significant resurgence.
"That'll be the line that their management will be taking," Bracewell said. "They'll want to get something out of this and the next focus will be the World Cup so they've got a lot to play for."
A former coach at English county Gloucestershire, Bracewell wasn't surprised at England's failure in the Ashes, simply because of the unique pressure associated with touring Australia.
He said England batsman Kevin Pietersen recently summed up the challenge for visiting teams fairly accurately when he observed that the entire psychology of touring Australia was different from anywhere else.
"They [the Australians] will eat away at a side that has any vulnerability," he said.
"I think they've done that successfully [against England] but I think they've also backed it up with extreme skill; they've played tremendously well."
For all that, Bracewell has never been overly impressed with England's commitment to the one-day game ever since he arrived at Bristol and proceeded to steer the unfashionable county to seven one-day titles in the space of six seasons.
He respects the England players, and the potential for them to bounce back in the coming one-day series, but that hasn't prevented him from offering some rather pointed criticisms about their approach to the limited-overs game.
Asked about the issue at the Champions Trophy tournament in India, after England had made a pig's ear of another world one-day tournament, Bracewell told the Guardian newspaper he detected a slightly snobby attitude to the shorter game as soon as he began his county stint.
"That was one of the reasons we were successful, because we did actually take it seriously," he said. "We were a side which probably didn't have the skills or the pitches to win the championship, but in order to give the players purpose and have an identity we grabbed hold of one-day cricket and stole a march on everybody."
He suggested it would be difficult for any national side to turn around overnight and repair generations of neglect, to the extent that they were suddenly able to win a Champions Trophy or World Cup.
"I'm not sure England have the resources in terms of athleticism, in flexibility. They're always a one-pattern team as opposed to one that is flexible for different conditions.
"England have had a very good, disciplined test programme for some time based around making sure that the four-pronged pace attack is fit - but that doesn't necessarily cut it in one-day cricket.
"In England there is a predominance [of the view that you] win the toss and knock a team over with pace and then have your opening batters try to bully their way through. But that's not necessarily [what's needed] in these conditions."
England are sitting at No 8 on the ODI rankings, just above Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and have won only seven of their past 27 matches, dating back to the winter of 2005.
But Bracewell doesn't rule out England having a purple patch in either of the coming tournaments, and believes they have the motivation and the players to surprise anyone who takes them lightly.
"They're a side that's reliant on the vital few as opposed to the group, the greater number, which we rely on," he said. "If that vital few hit form at the right time, they are in with a shout. If they don't, then they really haven't got a price."
