What a difference eight days can make.

On Saturday, July 11, England had thrashed Australia within four days to win the first Ashes Test by 169 runs in Cardiff. On Sunday, July 19, the same XI succumbed to their fourth heaviest defeat in Test matches – losing the Lord's Test to Australia by 405 runs, in less than four days.

It was almost as if the roles were reversed.

If England outbatted, outbowled and outfielded Australia in Cardiff, it was the visitors' chance at Lord's. If England skipper Alastair Cook won the toss at Cardiff and allowed his batsmen to make first use of a featherbed pitch, it was Michael Clarke's turn at Lord's.

If Stuart Broad and James Anderson had the numbers of the Australian batsmen in the first Test, with relentless length bowling in the corridor of uncertainty, it was the Mitchells Starc and Johnson, and Josh Hazlewood, who learned from their mistakes and helped their team get 20 wickets. If the England vice-captain Joe Root was the match-winner in South Wales, it was his opposite number Steve Smith's moment of glory in London.

However, these comparisons should not hide the fact that the Australians were far more clinical and dominant in their execution than their hosts.

If England scored 430 batting first in Cardiff, Australia made 566-8 declared at Lord's. If England took 20 wickets in the first Test, Australia did too in the second, but also didn't allow England to take more than 10 of their wickets over two innings.

Turnaround geniuses

What Australia managed to achieve after just a three-day gap between the first and second Tests is an ode to their ability as a team, which can never be given justice to with just numbers.

Everyone thought the “Dad's Army” was done and dusted after their Cardiff loss, but the Australians reacted in quick time by dropping two of their six thirty-somethings from their XI – one forced (Brad Haddin, personal reasons) and the other by choice (Shane Watson, poor form) – and injected their team with the exuberance and energy of a debutant wicketkeeper-batsman, Peter Nevill, and a proven in-form all-rounder, Mitchell Marsh.

The difference was visible in the field as Nevill took all his chances behind the sticks and batted gutsily for his 45, while Marsh took the important wickets of Cook, Ben Stokes and Gary Ballance.

Clarke paid tribute to his first-innings centurions, Chris Rogers (173) and Steve Smith (215), for laying the foundation for their Lord's victory, but it was his bowlers who really knocked the wind knocked out of the Englishmen, spearheaded by Mitchell Johnson. After being sarcastically applauded by the England faithful for conceding 100 wicketless runs in the first innings at Cardiff, the 33-year-old returned to take 3-53 and 3-27 at Lord's.

Bowlers to the fore

Johnson, Starc, Hazlewood, Marsh and spinner Nathan Lyon hunted in packs. The quicks would have seen Broad and Anderson bowl a good-length line and reap rewards in Cardiff on a track that wasn't offering much to them. They were greeted with a similar surface at Lord's, albeit one that seemed to even nullify the lateral movement on offer to the English seamers.

The Australian fast bowlers realised that if there was anything that was going to help them on such a lifeless surface, it was their aggression and the extra 5-10mph pace they had compared to the Englishmen. Starc and Johnson steamed in at 90mph and mostly kept it on a length, while peppering only those batsmen with distinct vulnerabilities to bounce, such as Root and Moeen Ali.

It was clear that they had a plan for each batsman. Adam Lyth's tendency to unnecessarily poke at the new ball was exploited in both innings, while a length ball moving away from Gary Ballance, who refused to budge from his deep French cricket stance inside the crease, was more than sufficient. As for Ian Bell, his lack of confidence was enough to get his wicket. The fire-breathing Johnson got Bell cowering in his crease, leading to twitchiness that led to his fall at the hands of Lyon.

Cook was the only English batsman who really showed the skill, temperament and resilience to thwart the Australian attack. In the first innings, the England captain used his zen attitude for a full 347 minutes, scoring 96, only to tiredly flash at a wide one and throw his wicket away in the second for just 11.

England have a major chink in their armour in the top order. Getting reduced to three or four down for 30-40 runs has become a routine this summer – it was 64 for seven at Lord's – and while you may find a way out against the likes of the West Indies, it's not going to win you matches against Australia.

Will England recover?

For now, the only way out for England seems to be if they can find a way to clone their captain and play him from numbers one to four in the line-up. Bell (averages 10 in last six Tests), Ballance (one score of 50-plus in last 10 Test innings) and Lyth (74 runs in last five Test innings) are walking the plank – in that order – and if they do not fall off before the third Test at Edgbaston, another failure there could be curtains for at least the former.

Another England habit this summer has been to follow a remarkable victory with a heavy defeat. It happened in the Caribbean, it happened against New Zealand and it's happened again against Australia. While the former two series were not long enough to see how the Three Lions would respond, the next three Tests against the world champions would definitely prove whether this is indeed the 'new' England.

Cook and head coach Trevor Bayliss have the luxury of 10 days before the next match to mastermind a turnaround, while the Australians play a tour match in Derby. If anything, they would have learned that it is wiser to order a pitch to amplify the strengths of your own team, rather than trying to nullify the opposition.

Broad has been England's standout performer with the ball so far and he is one who feeds off the lateral movement that is on offer in English conditions. If you're going to take that away by producing a track like the one at Lord's, just to try negate the Australians' pace, you are digging your own grave.