Australia risk falling off the pace in one-day cricket heading into next year's World Cup as they wrestle over how their batsmen pace their innings.
The five-time world champions slumped to a lowly fifth on the ICC ODI rankings following Sunday night's loss to England, marking their 14th loss in their last 21 completed matches.
While their bowlers couldn't defend 304 in the opening game of the five-match series, it's become apparent it's the team's approach with the bat that's become an issue since the 2015 World Cup.
The Twenty20 era has meant winning teams scored at an average of above a run a ball - at a rate of 6.42 an over - for the first time ever in that tournament.
Based on that, the par score in one-dayers is somewhere close to 320, a far cry from the 225 expected in the early 1990s and 275 at the turn of the century.
But in a worrying trend for Australia, they have only matched that run-rate 11 times in 51 matches since their 2015 triumph.
In comparison, three of the four teams above Australia in the rankings sit far prettier.
England, who have focused on preparations for next year's home World Cup, have topped the rate in 24 of 54 matches (44 per cent) since they were bumped out of the 2015 tournament in the group stages.
No.1 ranked South Africa have also reached the mark in 34 per cent of matches, while India have in 24 per cent.
Australia's 21 per cent is only above New Zealand's in terms of the world's top-five ranked teams, however the Kiwis play the majority of their cricket on traditionally grassier pitches which are harder to score on.
Aussie captain Steve Smith has already questioned whether his team needed to follow England's approach in the top order.
While Australia aim to have a set batsman at the crease heading into the late overs to launch an attack, England anchor their innings with Joe Root and Eoin Morgan while others go hard around them.
That pair both went at a strike-rate of less than 100 last year, while Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Alex Hales, Jason Roy and Jos Butler all went at more than a run a ball.
As a result, they've successfully chased 300-plus totals five times already since the 2015 World Cup - something they'd done just twice previous to that tournament.
In comparison, of Australia's batsmen in their squad for this summer's five-match series, only David Warner and Marcus Stoinis went at a strike rate of above 100 last year.
But allrounder Mitchell Marsh said Australia's tactics put responsibility on their top four to allow them to launch late, insisting the team did not need to follow England's bash-and-crash approach.
"Our game plan is to have one of the top four in through the whole innings and making big totals and knowing we have firepower at the end to cash in," Marsh said.
"The onus is the top four batters and that's our game plan."
TOP 10 ODI TEAMS BY RUN-RATE IN 2017
ENGLAND - 6.38
SOUTH AFRICA - 6.00
INDIA 5.93
AUSTRALIA - 5.79
NEW ZEALAND - 5.61
PAKISTAN - 5.36
BANGLADESH - 5.35
ZIMBABWE - 5.35
SRI LANKA - 5.06
IRELAND - 4.92
