Made hard work of it at times but fully deserved. Series drawn. Ashes retained by Australia. End of an era for some. But I'd say that the future of test cricket is bright. And ultimately that's what matters.
I still don't like "Bazball" and doubt I ever will, but it's made for a fascinating series. If we'd reigned it in a bit at either Lord's or Edgbaston we'd be getting ready to lift the urn I reckon, but hey ho. Outstanding comeback
I’d say we had far the better team but let down by our tactics and poor play at times. we shoulda regained the Ashes
Fantastic series. I thought the media went OTT with the fact that Aussies had retained the Ashes after we couldn’t force the win at Old Trafford, which somehow undermined the series decider and in some’s eyes was a dead rubber. The Aussies were desperate to,win the Ashes and the series, and was very apparent in their muted celebrations when presented with them Best team in the world vs Bazball! While Bazball is sometimes frustrating, it certainly puts the pressure on opponents. And i suspect if we hadn’t gone all out attack in the series we would have come a poor second. I do think Bazball is evolving, look at Stokes, Brook, Crawley in particular who all modified their approaches as the series went on (while still managing to score at 5 an over).
Great end to the series, should never have been 2 down tho, the catching in the first 2 tests was laughable and gave them a 2-0 lead that they didn't deserve, team selection was mental first 2 tests, with Stokes' knee knackered and Mo helicoptered in as spinner a bowling attack of 3 rfm in Broad, Anderson and Robinson never looked enough. Woakes and Wood have absolutely changed this series on the bowling side, last thing to say, is that I have been totally and utterly wrong about Crawley, I'd have binned him off without question, but he's been player of the series for us in my books, great with the bat and taken a lot of catches.
