As for us, the honeymoon is now truly over. The warm glow from the WTC final, making 50-over + T20 finals, I'd say is gone certainly in us hardcore fans but also in the general public who can't cop us blowing losing positions to Australia.
If Gary Stead is any good, he'll need to prove his coaching chops from now, after arguably (I would) inheriting a great side and steadily turning it into a worse one, without having lost much personnel apart from Ross Taylor.
As for Kane, I think it's crazy talk to even consider dropping him, as awful as he was in this series. The trouble with him is that when he's out of form, he looks to battle and grind his way out rather than smack his way out. And it's worked in the past, but not v Australia.
We've got plenty of ODIs coming up after the World T20, with India, Pakistan, India again, Sri Lanka, Pakistan again, Bangladesh and England in the next 12 months ahead of the World Cup. That's 23 ODIs in 12 months, and I think we played something like 9 in the 2 years after COVID. Time to head back to the drawing board and decide how we're going to get better.
Ps. How good to have a 50-over series again. 51 pages of thread and counting, a series that will be remembered for many years, rather than a junk throwaway T20 cash grab. Proper skills exhibited, ebbs and flows, proper cricket. Loved it. I bloody well hope 50-over cricket is not dead, just because gormless national administators say so.