As Australia went down in Perth like a fast-motion sunset, the undead zombie of our cricket culture rose out of the dark.

Our guys are too nice to win, we heard. Why are they smiling at the Indian players? Where is the fighting spirit of the olden days (asked the veterans of the olden days)? The cricket public is disappointed. It sees the veins popping in Virat Kohli’s neck, and it wants some of that from our side. It wants Australian mongrel.

We’ll hear more about it in coming days, because the zombie offers himself for selection whenever the Australian men’s Test team loses catastrophically.

For better or worse, the zombie has had a........

© The Sydney Morning Herald