If not now, when for Ashes' 'generational talents'?

One of them was flat-out "embarrassed" by his most recent dismissal; the other had no qualms calling out a pair of "shocking shots" that cost him his wicket in Brisbane and Perth.

It was plain language, plainly delivered. Refreshing, too, because amid the cliché-fest that these meandering days between Ashes Tests tend to become, Cameron Green and Harry Brook ditched the cricket-speak and simply owned their errors.

But maybe, for supporters on both sides of the Ashes divide, it was a little maddening too. This pair of prodigies perhaps felt comfortable enough to speak so candidly on their failings because they have been repeatedly backed in by their higher ups. One quickly loses count of the number of times they've each been labelled a "generational talent".

Whether the talent is there is not in question. Brook's remarkable Test career to date is proof positive of his unique batting gifts. Green's ability has been showcased more in dispatches along a much bumpier four-year journey in Baggy Green, complicated by his supreme bowling ability and a major back injury associated with that.

So what then of the "generational" part in that tantalising two-word descriptor? Which generation is being referred to here? Surely, with both men now closer to their 27th birthdays than their 26th, we are in the middle of it?

Which lands us in Adelaide.

Let's begin with Brook. The man who began the series with an effortless 52 from 61 balls on a difficult wicket in Perth, who routinely steps down and deposits fast bowlers over cover for six, and who lashed wildly at a couple of deliveries he conceded he shouldn't have to lose his wicket when set.

"They were shocking shots," he said on Monday. "It was just bad batting. The one in Brisbane, I've tried to hit it for six. That's what I mean when I say I need to rein it in a bit."

But isn't this what makes Brook so special? His refusal to "rein it in" is precisely how he earned his reputation as one of the world's most feared batters, and the poster child of the Bazball revolution. 

Take a look back to February 2023. Brook has just turned 24. After hitting an experienced New Zealand attack to all parts of Wellington's Basin Reserve for a 176-ball 186, his introductory numbers in Test cricket are mind-boggling: an average of 89 and a strike-rate of 98 from nine innings, with four hundreds.

CricViz says Brook has "attacked more than half of the balls he's faced in Test cricket – that's the most of anyone since shot type records began in 2006 (min 800 runs). While doing that, his false shot percentage is lower than Steve Smith, AB de Villiers, and Cheteshwar Pujara."

And back to present day. Brook has batted 45 times in Test cricket since that innings, and while his numbers in that period – 2,109 runs at 47.93, SR 83.65 – might look mild in comparison to his fired-out-of-a-cannon beginning, only Virender Sehwag has sustained a similar record over an extended career (min 2000 runs). In fact, another 82 runs in Adelaide will see Brook become the quickest Englishman to 3,000 Test runs since Herb Sutcliffe almost a century ago.

Yet for their generational talent to morph into something more, it seems England's media and supporters are waiting for Brook's hang-your-hat moment. Typically for their counrty's greats, that happens in the Ashes: think Stokes at Headingley in 2019, Flintoff in 2005 and Botham in 1981.

The last time England won in Adelaide, in December 2010, they did so off the back of a jaw-dropping 227 by another batting maverick named Kevin Pietersen. By then, Pietersen had already secured his Ashes legacy but as England went through a period of four Ashes series wins out of five, no-one scored more runs than 'KP'.

All of which means Brook's moment is there to be seized in Adelaide. At two-nil down, this walking, talking, six-hitting personification of Bazball has his chance to do something special across the coming five days. Still for Australia, despite his penchant for profligacy, despite his failure to register a hundred in seven Ashes Tests, he remains the dangerman; in Brisbane the hosts showed that even with Joe Root at his best, they can limit the damage if the rest of England's batting outfit misfires around him.

But the prospect of Brook at full tilt in Adelaide, amid the nauseating heat and with the short square boundaries, is something different altogether. The in-form Root has been Brook's banker – his partnerships with him have yielded more than twice as many runs as with anyone else – and the pair loom as the key to an English turnaround.

What then of the other number five, for whom some of the allegations levelled at Brook – of recklessness and excessive aggression – might have even been welcomed by Australian supporters during some unconvincing innings along the way?

It has been a strange year for Green amid a career that in some ways feels like we are still waiting to witness. But at 26-and-a-half, with 34 Tests to his name (two more than Brook), he could well be a third of the way through it.

As with Brook, we are surely smack bang in the middle of Generation Green. Returning skipper Pat Cummins said in June that the Western Australian was his side's long-term number three. Against West Indies in the Caribbean, in what was statistically an all-time difficult series for batters, he responded with well-compiled scores of 52, 46 and 42.

Two months later, again batting three – this time in an ODI against South Africa in Mackay – he crashed eight sixes in a stunning 118no from 55 balls.

The school of thought then was that Green had landed in new territory; that he had found a way to shed his nervousness, or tentativeness – or whatever it was that was holding him back – and his full force might be felt in the Ashes.

Since, he has been reshuffled to number five, and we have seen two solid starts in two Test innings, and more exciting hints of his capabilities. Like England with Brook, the landmark innings – the one that marries up to the wunderkind tag and stamps him as the rock in Australia's batting order post a 36-year-old Steve Smith – has not yet arrived.

Just as Brook is being afforded the latitude to "rein it in a bit", so Green is being given grace when it comes to shot selection. His issue has been almost the inverse of Brook's; at times he has become bogged down at the start of his innings, perhaps too cowed by the stakes of Test cricket to fully express himself. And then in Perth and Brisbane, he was out as he was looking to be more expansive.

"I think you're just learning more about yourself as a cricketer," Green said on Sunday. "The more cricket you get, the more experience (and) you start to work out what works in certain scenarios … there's just so many unknowns when you do start out that you're going to pick up things along the way that do help.

"When you when you first start, you've probably got a cover drive and a pull shot, where now, you may walk down the wicket, you've got a bit more confidence to back away, to play certain shots that you find are appropriate for that situation.

"I feel like I'm a better batter than I was a few years ago, and hopefully I'm a better batter in the future compared to now."

Yet for Green and Brook, those generational talents, that ambiguous, much-discussed 'future' is now.

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (third Test only): Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue