The flipping of the script could not have been more dramatic from the outcome at Kingsmead to what transpired at St George’s Park after Australia were made to follow-on for just the third time since 1988. That, too, after they had South Africa 97 for 5 at the end of the second day as rain wiped out significant time.

“We were nowhere near our best across the board really,” Cummins said. “Clearly need to be a lot better than that if we want to compete. I think a loss can sometimes kick yourself into gear. You can maybe paper over the cracks sometimes in a win. Whereas I think in a loss, it makes you ask questions as a player of yourself.”

“Depends what that means really,” Cummins said of Philander’s remark. “I think you’ve got to find a way in Test cricket. It’s not always going to be easy. You saw today with Trav and Scotty, sometimes it’s going to be about getting through the tough spells, sticking to your method and I think we went away from that on day four. You know, a couple of loose shots, [we] could have hung around and kind of waited for the game to come to us a little bit more.”

After scores of 0, 48, 0 and 8 since his surprise return, Maddinson may lose his place at the top of the order but given the 67 Tests of experience, the call around Labuschagne shapes as the most significant.

On the fourth day of the second Test Labuschagne reached 39 when he tried to loft Harmer down the ground into a howling gale and was caught at mid-on. It followed twin scores of 37 in Durban and the 31 he made against Bangladesh in Darwin. Labuschagne has not passed fifty in his last 14 Test innings but in this current series has faced the third-most deliveries for Australia behind Matt Renshaw and Head.

“I think the hardest thing about opening or batting three is actually getting yourself in. [The] balls are normally doing a fair bit [and] you’ve got fresh bowlers. He’s actually doing the hard bit, he’s getting to 30,” Cummins said. “I think he’s got to find a way to turn those into bigger scores; 30s aren’t going to win you many matches.

“But it’s certainly not a technique error. It’s maybe a couple of decisions [when] the game demanded something a little bit different. So, again, we’ll work on that in the next couple of days. It’s one Test match left in the series, we’ve got to win this, and then there’s a bit of a break before the summer.”

Despite maintaining a strong win record, Cummins acknowledged that Australia’s batting line-up had not been performing well enough for some time, referencing the fact they rested heavily on Matt Renshaw during the first Test when he made 272 runs for the match where they had been 124 for 6 in the first innings.

“Even last week, obviously Renshaw had an amazing game but I still think we weren’t at our best, particularly in the batting,” he said. “Looking around the changing room at how good our batters are and the standards they all hold themselves to, I think we’re probably a little bit shorter runs of where we’d like to [be]. It’s [about] what do we look like at our best? We’re still finding ways to win, [but] I think we make it hard for ourselves sometimes. We’ve got three or four days to get it right for Cape Town. There’ll be lots of conversations.”

However, like head coach Andrew McDonald the night before, Cummins was also keen to keep things in context. “If you said a month ago the series was going to be a one-all after two Tests with the two top teams in the world playing over here in South Africa, I think we probably would have said that’s not a bad position to be in,” he said. “It was only a week ago where we won convincingly. It doesn’t mean we’re a terrible team overnight.”

As in politics, a week has proved a long time in cricket. The one ahead will be hugely significant for Australia.